Blue Moon: The Awakening
by AnarchicMuse
Summary: We all have choices we have to make in life, some harder than others. I did not choose to become what I am, nor did I choose my destiny, but I chose to rise up and be what I was meant to become, and I chose to be the one to stop the evil from plaguing this earth, no matter the cost. I will not fail.
1. Prologue: The Essence of Humanity

**A/N: So here it is, the beginning of the Awakening, I hope that it is as good, and even better than the original Blue Moon was.**

**-_GoldenPhoenix_**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I'm going to get straight to the point for this one, I do not and will never own Twilight.<strong>

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><p><em> There are two definitions of a human being. One is defined by us- humans. Original is defined by nature. <em>

__ Both are contradicting each other, outbalancing the nature and human behavior.__

_ -Bhavesh Chhatbar_

Humanity is an odd thing. An enigma if you, please, that have left men and women much smarter than myself scratching their heads in confusion. Humanity. What a word, a word with a much deeper meaning than anyone could possibly imagine. What is humanity? What makes one human? Because I'm not sure I'm entirely human, and I'm not sure I ever was. I never felt, I never looked, I never acted as a human should. Yes, in a way I did seem to be exactly who I wanted to be, but where would this world be today without liars? Without those who deceived and connived? Without people like me? Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not evil, cruel, or twisted in any way, shape, or form. In fact, for the most part I'm like any normal person. But there were things about me, things about others in far off places, that wasn't and never would be considered human. Things that I was forced to hide from even my parents.

I didn't have antennae or green hued skin, I couldn't cast spells from my hands or shoot lasers from my eyes at will, in most ways I _appeared _and acted as a human should, but that was only on the surface. Beneath the normal facade I put up day after never-ending day, I was nothing short of a freak. How many could feel the pulsing rhythm of each and every heartbeat around them, drumming in a cacophony of sweet life? How man could taste the emotions wafting through the air, so savory and sultry? How many could bend the will of a human being, of an animal, of _anything, _to their desire with only a few well placed words?

No, if there was ever a definition, to clearly define what it is to be human, I, Isabella Marie Swan, was not it.

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><p><strong>AN: In my eyes I think that's a pretty damn good way to start a story, tell me what you think.**


	2. Chapter One: Finally Whole

**A/N: After the shedding of tears, blood, and sweat, all in equal abundance, I am pleased to present the completed and _edited _Chapter One of Blue Moon: the Awakening.**

**-_GoldenPhoenix_**

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><p><em>I cried today, not because I miss you, or even wanted you, but because I realized I'm gonna be all right without you.<em>

_-Unknown_

I guess you can say that the end of my "humanity" began when I moved to Forks, Washington to live with my father, Charlie, as the move was the catalyst, the one thing that set everything into action. If I hadn't moved to Forks I would never have met Edward and the rest of the Cullens, I would never have fallen in love with the eldest Cullen son, I would never have learned of the existence of vampires, I would never have encountered James, Victoria, and Laurent and been hunted all the way to Arizona, I would never have gone to that ballet studio, faced my imminent death, and lived to tell the tale. But more importantly if I hadn't moved to Forks I would never have had to face the months of rejection and heartbreak I was forced to endure after Edward left, and I would not be being hunted by Victoria right now.

But I am, and there's no point in dwelling on the what-if's and the if-I-had's. I am alone because of the choices I've made and I am being hunted because of the choices I've made. Because of the _wrong _choices I've made, and nothing more.

Ever since that fateful day in the spring of my junior year, I had been plagued by Victoria. First it was dreams, I would see her in the forest, running, just running, sometimes hunting the odd human, nothing to be worried about. Then after Edward left the dreams left, and were replaced by fully-fledged nightmares. They were always of the same thing, in the same place, with the same people. A pale skinned, dark-haired girl, with eyes the blue of the sky right before dawn broke: lying on the ground, weeping softly. Her legs were bent in unnatural angles and a bone in her right arm was piercing the skin. Me: I was sitting beside the girl, my face slashed and bloodied, my left arm dangling uselessly by my side, and my hair matted with dirt and blood. Victoria: standing over the two broken figures, laughing.

They were always the same, _always_. But no matter how many times I was forced to endure that one scene, it always left me pale-faced and sweating. I would never become immune to the horror that one dream wrought. On more nights than not, I would stay awake as long as I could just to avoid having to dream that dream, resulting in my barely being coherent enough to understand what was happening in school. At the rate I was going, I would have to retake my senior year come fall.

Well I would have had to if it weren't for the twenty-first of December.

Yes, December twenty-first, the Winter Solstice, the longest day of the year, as good a day as any to begin the last day of my life.

It had began like any, the usual wake-up-at-three-in-the-morning-and-scream-until-my-throat-is-bleeding was how I started it, followed by the curse-the-very-existence-of-the-Cullens exercise until it was time to get up, after that I brushed my nowadays dull and lusterless hair until it sat like a dead weasel on my head rather than like a dead poodle and pulled on my usual attire of black skinny jeans and dark gray t-shirt, then I ate the normal meal of sugarless cereal and dry toast, then went on my merry little way to school. Exciting so far isn't it? Oh trust me, it gets better.

For the entire seven hours of the school day I ignored the rare student, former friend, or teacher who even dared to approach me. I was too damned tired from the constant nights of no sleep to be bothered with things as trivial as friendships and passing my final year at Forks High School (Home of the Spartans!). When school ended I made my way to my truck, hellbent on getting home as fast as possible (I'd quit my day job at Newton's Olympic Outfitter's long ago) and maybe grabbing a cup of tea before going to bed in hopes of catching at least a few hours of sleep before the nightmares began.

However, the moment I pulled up to my driveway I realized that my plans would not be commencing as they usually did tonight. Parked in my truck's usual spot was Charlie's police cruiser. Mentally, I cursed my bad luck. With Charlie home I would be unable to get my tea and go straight to sleep, he would never let me. I could tell he was worried about me and my-well being. Whenever he got home from work, usually at around five or six in the evening, he would come home and immediately peek his head into my room hoping against hopes that maybe just this once I was conscious. I never was, but he never woke me up, not after the one time he'd tried and only received a sharp punch in the gut for his efforts.

But today he was home before me and would do all in his power to intercept me, and as he had much more power than I did, he would prevail in keeping me from reaching my bedroom and in it. My wonderful bed.

Again I cursed my luck before hopping out of the cab of my truck and stomping angrily to the front door.

"Bells?" Charlie called from the living room the moment I slammed the door shut "Is that you?"

"Yes, Dad," I scowled "It's me,"

"Oh, good," he stepped into the hallway, a strained smile plastered across his face "I was wondering when you'd get home, I wanted to take you down to The Lodge for dinner. I don't want you cooking dinner for your old man every night.

I grimaced internally. When was the last time I made Charlie dinner? "No thanks, Dad," I attempted to smile, but I'm pretty sure it came off more as a grimace "I'm not that hungry, I think I'll just take a quick nap. Maybe another day?" the hope in my voice was evident, despite the fact that I knew there was no way in hell Charlie would let me go. But a girl can hope, can't she?

"This is my only day off, for the next three weeks," Charlie said grabbing my elbow and leading me out to the cruiser "And I'll be damned if I don't spend it with my baby girl," God damn Charlie and his guilt trips.

My feeble protests of "having homework to do" and being "hopelessly tired" seemed to fall on deaf ears as Charlie sped down the interstate, and within a quarter of an hour had his car parked in front of his favorite diner. The Lodge, a diner that served overly large portions of food, with a supersized amount of grease on the side (grease free of charge).

"Come on, Bells," Charlie pushed me through the door "I have a surprise for you,"

I stopped halfway through the door of The Lodge.

"Surprises," I asked suspiciously "Dad, you know I hate surprises,"

"Oh, hush and hurry up," Charlie grinned.

Scowling, I walked into the restaurant and stopped dead, sitting in the booth directly in front of the entrance were Renee and Phil.

"Mom? Phil?" I asked confused "What are you guys doing her? You're supposed to live halfway across the country,"

"Can't a mother fly across the country just to see her daughter?" Renee asked standing from her seat and to pulling me into a rib cracking hug, before yanking me down to sit beside her in the booth "I haven't seen you since you moved here with your father, and I missed you,"

Smiling even wider now, Charlie sat beside Phil and across from Renee and me.

We sat in that booth for maybe three minutes, just making small talk before a perky, big-busted, blond waitress appeared at our table popping a sickly blue colored piece of bubblegum.

"What can I get y'all?" she drawled lazily.

"I'll have a quarter pound bacon cheeseburger, with medium fries, and a beer," Charlie ordered cheerfully.

"I'll have the same," Phil said.

"I'll just have a glass of lemon water," I sighed rubbing my face tiredly.

Renee frowned at me for a few seconds before turning to the waitress "We'll split a large bowl of pasta,"

With a curt nod and a "Your order will be done in fifteen minutes" the scantily dressed waitress walked away.

"So, sweetheart," Renee said, leaning back in her seat "What have you been doing beside spending time with your old man?"

I shrugged, focusing all of my attention on systematically shredding my napkin into perfect squares "I haven't gotten to do much, you know with finals coming up all I can do is study and sleep,"

"Oh. Well have you been passing all of your classes?"

"Yeah," the lie slipped easily out of me "For the most part,"

"That's good, darling,"

Heaving a giant sigh, I looked up at the three adults, already resigned to a long night "What is it? You guys need to talk to me about something, so talk,"

For several seconds the three looked taken aback at my rather abrupt statement, but they quickly rearranged their faces

"Well, to be honest, Bells," Charlie began "I've been," Renee elbowed him in the ribs "_we've _been worried about you. Whenever I come home your sleeping, I haven't seen you going out with your friends since...well, since Edward left,"

I looked up sharply, my eyes narrowed. It was an unspoken rule between the two of us to _never _speak about Edward. The very sound of that bastard's name set my blood boiling and Charlie sat here throwing it around as if it meant nothing.

"It has nothing to do with Edward," I snapped "That bastard stopped affecting my life the day he left me in the forest,"

Renee froze, her mouth hung wide open, Charlie's face was turning a deep shade of puce.

"He what?" my father growled, sounding dangerously like a wild animal "_He left you in the god-damned forest?_"

I focused my attention once again on shredding my napkin "I guess," I murmured offhandedly.

"Bella, you told us you went on a walk and got lost," Renee cried.

I didn't respond.

"Isabella!" I flinched at the use of my full name "Which one is it?"

Again there was silence.

"Isabella Marie Swan," Renee said sharply "You answer me right now,"

"Dammit, Mom," I hissed "you want an answer? _Yes_, that prick left me in the forest. He shattered my heart to a _gazillion _pieces and left me in the cold, dark forest to fend for myself. But I've gotten over him, and what he did to my, and it's about damn time you did the same. My whole fucking world does not revolve around Cullen, so stop trying to make all of my problems look like they're because of him, when we all know damn well they're not,"

"You're order is here,"

We all turned to glare at the blond, gum snapping waitress.

Oblivious to the heated stares aimed at her she placed the food on the table and walked away, swaying her overly large hips a little too much to be comfortable.

"Look, guys," I sighed sipping my water "Let's just-let's just drop it,"

"We will not drop it!" Charlie exclaimed "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because it's not that big of a deal, you both are blowing it out of proportions,"

"No, Bella, we're not," Charlie said angrily "I see the way you walk around, like your some zombie. I hear you screaming at night, until you can't scream anymore, and I'll be damned if I allow you to just wave this off as us blowing things out of proportion. Now either you tell us what's wrong or we'll have to get you some serious help, because I don't like the path you're going down right now,"  
>"Is this intervention over yet?" I asked coldly "Or is there more? I am really tired, and if you don't mind I'd like to get to bed,"<p>

Charlie turned red, and Renee looked near tears, but I refused to feel guilty. I couldn't tell them why I was acting the way I was, for their own safety they couldn't know about Victoria.

Neither of my parents, or Phil, who had been unusually quiet throughout the conversation, spoke again for the rest of the meal, and after they were done, they payed the bill and we left.

"Your mom and Phil need to stop by the house really, quickly," Charlie told me as we slid into his cruiser and drove out of the parking lot, Phil and Renee close behind us.

I grunted and stared out of the window, refusing to speak to him after that disaster of a dinner.

"So, I'm getting the silent treatment now?" Charlie asked, bemused "In all honesty I don't believe I actually deserve it,"

I ignored him.

"Bella, please. Renee and I, we're doing this because we love you, and we're worried about you. Just talk to us, and we'll understand, no matter what it is that's bothering you. We-what was that?"

I turned to my father eyebrows raised in question "What was what?"

"I don't know," Charlie squinted out of the window in hopes of getting another look at whatever he saw outside of the window "I saw a flash of red, and white. It almost looked like there was someone running right beside our car, but that's impossible, I'm going sixty-five miles an hour. No one could keep up with that,"

I nodded but remained silent. It couldn't be Victoria, I frowned, maybe Charlie shouldn't be driving, he had had a beer for dinner.

"Look there it is again,"

I followed the direction Charlie was pointing at with my eyes and immediately stiffened in my seat. If you didn't know what you were looking at there would be no way of telling what the figure running parallel to Charlie's police cruiser was, but I knew what I was looking at.

"Victoria," I whispered in horror.

"What did you say, Bells?" Charlie asked "Do you know what that thing is?"

"Dad, stop the car,"

"Bella, what-?"

"Charlie, stop the car!" I screamed, but it was too late. Faster than I could even blink, Victoria darted right in front of the speeding vehicle and rammed herself in to it. The air rushed from my lungs as the car flipped over backwards directly onto Renee's car.

I let out a scream as a pair of cold hands grabbed me and dragged me away from the two cars, just as they exploded with deafening _boom!_ Victoria had managed to drag me nearly two hundred feet away before the two cars went boom, but I could still feel the heat of the explosion.

"Charlie!" I screamed, fighting fruitlessly against the iron-like grip holding me back "Mom! Phil!"

"Oh, poor Bella," a sweet voice cooed in my ear "They can't hear you, and won't ever be able to again,"

"You bitch!" I screamed, now fighting against Victoria's arms, just to fight "You murderous she-devil! How could you? They never did anything to you! They! Were! Innocent!"

Victoria scoffed "Innocent? I think not. Who is ever truly innocent? Besides I think it's only fitting that like me, you lose everything you hold dear, starting with your family,"

"No!" I screamed.

"Oh enough already," with a frustrated growl, Victoria jabbed the nerve on the side of my neck, and everything went dark.

"_The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out. _Wakey, wakey, Isabelly," a voice crooned in my ear.

I shuddered, but kept my eyes screwed shut.

_This is all a dream. _I tried to convince myself, _Just a terrible, terrible dream, and when I wake up I'll find myself in my bed, sweating and screaming, but in my own bed._

My dreams were shattered when I felt a sharp slap against my cheek "You can't pretend to sleep, Isabella. I could here your heart rate pick up the moment you returned to the realm of consciousness. Now, open your damn eyes, before I cut your eyelids off,"

I opened my eyes, glaring heatedly at the red headed demon smirking down at me.

"Now you see, that wasn't so hard," Victoria sneered.

"What do you want?" I spat, trying to stand, but found my calves and ankles duct-taped securely to the legs of a rickety, wooden chair, frantically, I looked around, surveying my surroundings.

I was in a small windowless room, maybe the kitchen of a house with all of the appliances removed. To my left was a door branching off into a dark hallway "You got what you wanted, you killed my family, thus making my life miserable. So, what is it you want now?"

Victoria laughed "Well, you see, Bella, making your life miserable just isn't enough for me. I want to make your life a living hell. I want to make you wish that neither of your parents ever existed to meet each other and have the likes of you,"

I scoffed "I already wish that, Victoria. My life already _is _a living a hell. And nothing you could do can rival the pain I feel, every god-damned day,"

Victoria smirked "Well, we can always try," with the strength only a vampire possessed she backhanded me, most likely dislocating my jaw.

"Now were to start?" gently, almost lovingly she took me hand "How about we see how long, it takes for you to scream?"

Smiling at me like an aunt would at her favorite niece, she took my index finger in her hand and pulled, yanking it out of the socket. I gritted my teeth, refusing to scream.

"Oh, we'll get a scream out of you yet," Victoria said, as if sensing my intentions.

Calmly, she went back to dislocating every finger on my hands, after all ten were grotesquely crooked and bent, she went to work popping them back into place. The process hurt just as bad as when they were dislocated, but I refused to scream.

"Oh your so tough, Isabella. Tougher than the other one, I daresay,"

I didn't speak, for fear that the moment I opened my mouth I would scream and never stop, but inside my mind was racing.

The other one? She has someone else here? Who? No one had gone missing in Forks since nineteen eighty one.

"But don't worry," Victoria cooed "By the time we're done you'll be begging for death,"

I spat blood onto her crisp white shirt "Fuck you,"

I received a punch in the nose for that. Blood and tears streamed down my chin, dripping into my lap "You'll learn to respect me one day,"

I scoffed "Not likely,"

Victoria grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled my head back so I could stare up at her "You're an insufferable little human and you'll learn to fear me by the end of your time here,"

She yanked my arm from the socket. I refused to scream. She popped it back in, then moved to my next arm and redid the process. I still refused to scream. Snarling, angrily Victoria took my right arm in her vice like grip and snapped the bone clean in half, then slowly began grinding the two halves together.

I screamed.

"Yes," the red-head hissed "Scream. Until your throat is bloody and raw," smiling sadistically she slapped me three times, filling my mouth with the acrid taste of blood "In the end I'll always win,"

It took all my will power not to scream again, but despite my best efforts I was still making soft whimpering noises.

"I think that's enough for you tonight, Bella dear," Victoria tore the tape binding me to the chair and began dragging me from the room by my hair "It's time to meet your new roommate,"

I let out a soft whimper as we reached a door in the hall and she pulled me down a flight of stairs. At the bottom was a tiny dirt floored, storm cellar, lit by a single battery operated candle flickering sadly in the corner.

"Well, here we are," Victoria threw me down the last few stairs "You two play nice now," Cackling madly, she slammed the door shut, and bolted it from the outside, plunging the room into near darkness.

I made no move to rise from the heap I had landed in, as I waited for the excruciating pain in my arm to subside enough for me to breath freely again.

"Hello?"came a quiet voice from the corner "Who's here?"

Slowly, the pain abated and I managed to lift my head and seek out the source of the voice. It didn't take me long to find her, an emaciated young girl who's face was covered in both dried and fresh blood. But I knew what would be under the blood, pale skin, and eyes as blue as the sky. She was just like the girl in my dreams. Even her injuries, her legs were bent in opposite directions, the bone in her arm was sticking from the skin.

"My name is Bella," I said softly, still shivering from the intense pain emanating from my arm.

"Brenna," the girl whispered

"Brenna," I breathed, studying her extensive injuries "How long have you been here? _Why_ are you even here?"

"I've been here for maybe two months now," came the reply "As for why," Brenna laughed bitterly "I'm here because I fell in love with the wrong guy, and now his mate, as she calls herself, is sating her lust for revenge

"Victoria is getting her revenge for her mate?" I queried "Do you mean James?"

"You knew James?" Brenna asked tensing suddenly "Do you know what happened to him? Where he is now?"

"I did know him," I said sorrowfully "But he's dead now. My former boyfriend, Edward, killed him, last spring after James tried to kill me,"

"He tried to kill you?" Brenna choked "He's _dead_?"

"I'm sorry, Brenna," I said somewhat lamely "I-"

"No, Bella you don't understand," the dark hair girl reached out and gripped my hand with her uninjured one "At first I thought I loved James more than anything, but then after a few months of being with him he- he changed, and not for the better. He became violent and demanding, he would always want sex, and when I refused him he would take it by force. He would _rape _me and hit me, and sometimes if he hit my hard enough for me to bleed, he would drink my blood as if it were some savory elixir," Brenna's grip on my hand tightened. She fell silent for several seconds, collecting herself "What are they?" she finally asked "James and Victoria? I've seen them both move faster than anyone could possibly move, Victoria these past months has been able to snap my bones like a toothpick with absolutely no effort. And James, drinking my blood? What monster does that?"

"Monsters from myths," I whispered staring up at the ceiling "From scary stories, creatures of the night,"

"Vampires"

The one shocked, disbelieving word seemed to reverberate throughout the entire room.

I nodded "Yes, James, Victoria, my ex, Edward, and his family, all vampires,"

Brenna's aquamarine eyes bore into my own chocolate brown ones with such intensity it felt as if she was staring into my very soul "Tell me about them," she eventually said, breaking eye contact with me in favor of watching the battery run candle "How did you find out? What were they like? Tell me everything,"

I shrugged, I might as well, I'd already broken the rules and told her about the existence of vampires, if I was already going to hell, I might as well deserve it. Besides when talking I no longer thought of the agonizing pain throbbing steadily in my arm.

"I first found out about vampires when I moved here, Forks, Washington, to live with my dad, Charlie, and to give my mother, Renee, and her new husband, Phil Dwyer, some time alone. On my first day at Forks High School I first saw the Cullens, the adopted children of Carlisle and Esme Cullen. There were five of them, Alice Cullen a tiny, pixie like girl, with small features, spiky hair, and and energetic attitude to match her fairy like appearance. Then there was Jasper Hale, blond hair, tall, and leanly muscular, he didn't speak much. Rosalie Hale was his twin sister, or that's what they claimed when going to school, Rosalie was no doubt the most beautiful of the already stunning Cullen Coven, but she was shallow, and terribly ungrateful. She had everything a wonderful family, beauty, and a man who loved her more than his own life, but she always wanted _more_. Emmett Cullen was her mate, or husband, and he was most likely my favorite Cullen, with his fun loving, boisterous attitude. He was like a teddy bear humongous, with muscles a normal person could only achieve by using steroids, but he was always so sweet. I like to imagine that that would be how my older brother would be like, if I ever had one," I sighed, and carefully shifted my position on the ground so as not to upset my broken arm "And the last Cullen was Edward Cullen, lanky and boyish looking, with untidy bronze hair. Many girls in Forks High perceived him to be "sexily innocent"," my face screwed up at the description "But despite their status as siblings, the five Cullen children were together. Jasper was with Alice, and Rosalie with Emmett. Luckily for me, Edward was the only Cullen seemingly uninterested in incest"

Brenna giggled "You don't sound to happy about that,"

I smiled at the sweet sound of her laugh "Not now, but at first I was ecstatic. We first made contact in sixth period he was incredibly tense, trying to lean away from me without making a scene, almost as if I stank. When the bell rang, he bolted from his seat and was out of the class before I could even put my notebook away.

"The next day he didn't show up, nor did he show up for the next week. But when he did return, nearly eight days after I'd arrived at Forks his attitude toward me had seemed to have did a one-eighty. When I arrived in Bio he was friendly, he asked me about myself and how I was liking Forks, boring stuff like that. It wasn't anything special, just small talk between lab partners, so you can understand my mystification when the very next day he risked exposing his greatest secret to save my life,"

"What he do?" Brenna asked, wholly intrigued "What happened?"

"Well the day after Edward's return to school I woke up to find that the snow that had fallen the previous day had solidified to ice on the road, and let me tell you now that was terrible for me. On dry ground I was already the world's greatest klutz, but on ice I was nothing short of a terror," again Brenna let out a sweet giggle "I managed to drive to school in the truck Charlie had bought me a week previous, as something of a welcome home present, without wrecking all of Forks, and when I arrived in the school parking lot and examined my tires I understood why. Charlie had woken at God-knows-how-early-in-the-morning o'clock to put snow chains on my tires. Unfortunately, as I stood there beside my truck, overcome with emotion a high screeching sound rent the air. One of my friends, Tyler Crowley, had lost control of his car and was sliding across the ice. He was going to hit me in the next few seconds, I had no time to move. Everyone was watching, including Edward and his siblings who where standing beside there car four parking spaces down, but no one could do anything for me, they were too far away and the car was moving too fast," I took a deep breath "I thought I was going to die. But then right before the car hit me something pushed me to the ground, and dragged me away, when I tried to get up I found myself pinned down by none other than the Edward Cullen. Somehow, he had managed to cross four parking spaces in a matter of nanoseconds and push me away from the van, but what was more, when the van slid around to hit us he reached out and stopped it with his bare hands, leaving dents in the metal.

"A few hours after the accident, after I had been released from hospital by Dr. Cullen, Edward's adoptive father, I confronted him, but he tried to tell me I hit my head in the accident, and that I was confused. But when I didn't buy that he gave up trying to convince me that I was crazy and imagining things and resorted to telling me that no one would believe me if I told them what happened. That day ended the tentative friendship between Edward and me for nearly two months. During that time I went to La Push, the Quileute reservation near Forks, with a bunch of friends and a few of the Quileute boys, among them is Jacob Black, a childhood friend who had grown up on the reservation. I managed to lure Jacob away from the crowd and he told me some old Quileute legends, most prominent among them was the one of the Cold ones, the Quileute term for vampires, because of their ice cold skin. One spoke of this one time, long before either of us was born, when a coven of Cold Ones came to Forks, wishing to settle down, when they came across the protectors of La Push they told them that they were unlike most vampires, that instead of feeding from humans they fed from animals. The protectors of La Push agreed that the coven could remain in Forks as long as they followed two conditions. One, they were never to step onto La Push land and Two, they were never to kill or even bite a human. The coven of vampires agreed and lived peacefully in Forks for several years before moving on,"

"But why did the vampires agree to the treaty? What were a bunch of La Push Protectors against a coven of vampires?"

I smiled "The legend say that the men who protected La Push weren't normal men. They were men who could change into wolves,"

"W-werewolves?" Brenna spluttered beyond astonished "What's next? Pixies?"

I laughed and shook my head "I'm not even sure if the legends are true, but who knows, there are vampires in this world, why not werewolves?

" Anyway, you may be interested in hearing the name of the coven that created the treaty,"

"Let me guess," Brenna said "the Cullens,"

"Spot on," I smiled "As you can imagine this got me suspecting that the Cullen's weren't at all what they claimed to be, a suspicion that was proved correct only a little bit later. Three days after hearing the legends of the Cold Ones I and two friends, Angela and Jessica, went shopping in Port Angeles, after a while a got board and went off to buy myself a book with promises of meeting my friends later at some restaurant. I'd been searching for a book store for maybe an hour or so before I noticed it was starting to get dark and the streets were emptying, I began to head to to the restaurant I promised to meet Jessica and Angela back and it was only then that I realized I was being followed by several men. I picked up my pace and after awhile some of them left, I was hoping that the rest would get board and leave me alone, but it turns out that that wasn't the case, when I turned the corner I found the men who had left earlier standing there waiting for me. I knew what they wanted, but I wasn't going to give them anything without one hell of a fight. As I was going over all the defensive moves I knew a silver Volvo sped around the corner, the passenger door opened and the driver told me to get in, without a hesitation I did. Luckily, or maybe unluckily. For me. It was only Edward, he drove me to where I was supposed to meet Angela and Jessica, they both were waiting for me, worrying over my absence, Edward assured them I was okay then took me to some Italian place so I could eat. We talked for a bit, I ate, and then he took me home. But then on the way home I began questioning him, about the day he saved me from Tyler's speeding minivan, about how he knew where I was when those guys were about to attack me. He made me try to guess what he was, eventually I mustered up enough courage and told him my suspicions. He was a vampire, it took him a bit, but he admitted it to me, that and that he could read everyone's minds but mine. We became a couple the next day, four days later I'm meeting his family. We hit it off, the Cullen's and I, all of them, excluding Rosalie, were amazingly nice, they even invited me to the family baseball game that evening," I sighed at the memory "They could only play baseball during thunderstorms,"

"Why?" Brenna asked.

I laughed "Because vampires are not like humans, they ate infinitely stronger and faster than us mortals, and when they play baseball they use all of there strengths. The sounds they make when hitting the ball or when they slam into one another are often as loud as thunder, and thus can only be passed off as thunder when it's storming outside. Unfortunately, another coven of vampires heard the noise and understood it for what it truly was, they came to investigate and when they found us apologized for intruding and introduced themselves as Laurent, James, and Victoria," Brenna inhaled sharply "The Cullen's introduced themselves as well, cleverly concealing me among the family so I wouldn't be noticed and mistaken as a snack, and it would have worked if the wind hadn't suddenly shifted directions and blew my scent toward James and his coven, of course they thought I was a snack and expressed their desires to get a bite out of me. The Cullen's Edward the most went berserk and got me away from them, but not before James smelled a challenge. You see, he was a skilled tracker, and when he saw me, a delicious smelling, young girl protected by seven talented vampires, he found the challenge too good to pass up. I was forced to go into hiding for fear of being drained dry. I told Charlie that I couldn't stand being in Forks any longer then I left with Jasper and Alice to Phoenix, Arizona, while the rest of the Cullen's hunted down James and Victoria- Laurent didn't see my blood worth getting killed over. Jasper, Alice, and I were in Phoenix for maybe two days before I got the call from James. He told me that he had my mother and that if I didn't go to the old ballet studio I used to take dance lessons from then he would kill her. I couldn't take the chance, the next day I gave Jasper and Alice the slip and took a taxi to the ballet studio. James was waiting for me there, but my mother wasn't. It had all been a trick, he never had my mother.

"Hoping to cause Edward more pain than my death could bring he set up a video recorder and commenced to beat me up, but when he threw me into the mirrors and the glass cut my skin he lost control and bit me. But just as he began to drink from me Edward and his family busted in killed James and began to heal me. James had bitten my arm, injecting venom in me, vampire venom turns a human to a vampire,"

Brenna gasped "You're a vampire?" she breathed?  
>I shook my head "No, Edward sucked the venom from me, thus saving my mortality. With James dead I could go home to Charlie, and everything was wonderful. I though I was in love," I laughed bitterly "I should have known it was too good to be true. Six months had passed since the attack and my eighteenth birthday had arrived. Alice insisted on throwing me a birthday party, despite my protests. To make a long story short it was nothing it was disaster, when opening one of my gifts I cut myself on the paper, upon smelling my blood Jasper, the least controlled of the Cullen's, leapt at me. Edward managed to push him away from me, but then he pushed me away from Jasper, throwing me into a table and effectively opening a large <em>bleeding <em>gash in my arm. Jasper was dragged away, and everyone else but Edward, Alice, and Carlisle left. Carlisle, being a doctor, was completely unaffected by the smell of my blood, and stayed here to stitch up my wound, Edward and Alice stayed to be supportive, but even they were forced to leave when the smell became too much.

"The days following the party were terrible, none of the Cullen's were at school and Edward was distant with me. I was so confused but he explained everything a few days later when he took me into the forest, told me that I wasn't _good for him_, and that to keep both me and himself safe he and the rest of the Cullen's were leaving," I took a shaky, angry breath before continuing "Four months following the day that cold, heartless bastard left me in the forest to pick up the pieces of my shattered heart I was catatonic, I wouldn't eat, or sleep, or talk to anyone. I was a shell of my former self. But as the months passed and my distress subsided I became furious. Who was he to cruelly string me along one day, and then leave me like yesterdays trash the next?

"Edward had claimed to have left for my own good, for my safety, but in his haste to "protect" me from his world he forgot one crucial detail. The red eyed huntress lusting for my blood. I knew she was in Forks, I could _feel _her presence in the very air I breathed, she haunted me by day, appearing randomly throughout my day, and by night, starring in my worst nightmares,"

And so I told her all of the night occurrences, how Charlie had taken me to the Lodge, where Renee and Phil were waiting for us, how they had attempted to have an intervention and I all but bit their heads off, and how on our way home Charlie saw Victoria running beside the car and...

And then it hit me, like a ton of bricks in the stomach. My parents were dead. Never again would I hear Renee tell me of some crazy new hobby of hers. Never again would I cook dinner for Charlie. Never again would I be able to tell my parents just how much I loved them. So I cried, I wept bitterly for all I lost, and Brenna comforted me to the best of her ability. But when I was all out of tears I realized something. I wasn't grieving. Yes, the deaths of the only family I had left was agonizing at the moment, but I was not crippled by it, I knew that one day I could get through it. Their deaths gave me strength, and a determination to survive whatever horrors I would soon have to endure. Their deaths healed me.

It had been four months since Edward left me, and of all the days he'd been absent my heart had never mended, but finally, sitting in this tiny windowless room with a girl I barely knew, both of us awaiting fates far worse than death I felt whole. I was finally whole.

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><p><strong>AN: Chapter One of the Awakening. Done, tell me what you think. But before you do I forget to remind you all that the poll is still standing, here are how the votes stand.**

**Alec: 7  
>Edward: 3<br>O.C.: 3  
>Other: 0 "(Not even one XD) <strong>


	3. Chapter Two: Captivity

**A/N: So firstly, I'd like to wish you all a Happy New Year! I know I'm kind of late, but you know what they say, _better late than never_. Secondly, I'd like to thank Thiree for being the first and _only_ reviewer. I don't want to send desperate, but when I checked my reviews and saw I had only received _ONE_ I was more than a little disappointed. So I won't plead, beg, nag, or urge you to review, all I'll say is that they would be more than a little appreciated. Thirdly, I apologize due to the fact that during this chapter the Point of View will be switching constantly between Edward and Bella. And also I would like to thank lovieduvie124 for helping me with this chapter. I owe you big time! And finally, here are the poll results, they haven't changed much, if at all, since the last time I checked them, but I though I might post them anyway.**

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><p><strong>Alec-10 (leading by six points baby!)<strong>

**Edward-4 (come on you can do it!)**

**O.C.-3**

**Other- 0 (just give up already o)**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: Honestly? Is it necessary to rub it in even further? I do not own Twilight!<strong>

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><p><strong><strong>_You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind_

_ -Mahatma Gandhi_

The night was silent, save for the ragged sound of Brenna breathing close by my side and the uneven tattoo of my own sluggish heartbeat. It had been nearly a month since my abduction, and in that time Victoria had taken it upon herself to push me to the very brink of insanity, before pulling me back again, only to push me again the very next day. Since my arrival in La Chambre de Torture, as Brenna and I had named our current place of residence, I had been beaten within an inch of my life, various times with weapons ranging from the dull tip of a hammer to the diamond hard fists of Victoria. I had had my feet burned by plunging them into boiling water, several bones snapped like pencils, and had the word _SLUT _branded to my forehead and cheeks with a white hot poker. And those were some of the nicer things.

But I couldn't care less, all I could think of was Brenna.

During the time Brenna and I weren't being tortured by Victoria we lay in the cellar and did the only thing to distract ourselves from the pain, we talked. We talked about anything; school, music, books, anything to get our minds off of our injuries. But we mostly talked about ourselves, we told each other everything from our first memories to present day. We talked about our families, our friends, we told each other every crush we ever had, and shared our deepest darkest secrets, until Brenna knew everything about me, and I her.

Brenna, despite her young age, had gone through so much more than I ever had, her hardships had begun the very moment she was born. The night Daria Castelliana, Brenna's mother, had gone into into labor her husband, Travis, had been a three hours drive away, on a business trip for his law firm. Upon hearing that his wife was in labor he left his hotel and, in his old beat up Pinto at speeds far too fast for the old clunker. An hour into the drive Travis, going too fast to be able to stop himself, plowed into a sixteen wheeler.

The truck driver was, mercifully, not hurt, but Travis was in critical condition. He suffered a broken arm, fractured in three places, legs shattered under the weight of the car, and three broken ribs, one of which had punctured his lung another sticking straight from his chest. He was flown to Waldo County General Hospital where he was immediately taken into surgery, in a desperate attempt to save his life. But to no avail.

On September 20th, 1994 at approximately eleven forty-eight p.m. Travis Chase Castelliana died, and precisely seven minutes later Brennamine, later to be nicknamed Brenna, Jean Castelliana was born in the very same hospital. After learning of her husbands death only hours after giving birth to their first and only child, Daria could no longer even bear to look at her daughter, with her aquamarine eyes so much like her fathers. And so Brenna grew up neglected, watching from the sidelines as her mother slowly threw her life away, staying out until all hours of the night, drinking her body weight in tequila, and bringing home random men from the side of the rode to sate her insatiable need for attention. Then Brenna met James, and it all went to hell from there. In a way it was oddly comforting, spilling our deepest darkest secrets to each other, if we were to die in this dark, dirty cellar, at least we would die with no secrets clutched close to our chests. But with this comfort came heartache, a realization that while some say that the worst pain there is, is the pain of a broken heart, there is nothing more agonizing, nothing more heartrending than watching the one you love slowly go insane. Brenna, my best friend, my sister in all but blood was being driven to insanity by the merciless torture wrought by Victoria's hand. She was young- a year my junior- and fragile, she wouldn't be able to last much longer. "The wolves are hunting," I turned on my side, ignoring the sharp pains of my broken bones, to reach out and gently stroke my sisters dark hair, it had become a habit of hers to whisper things in her sleep, she whispered nonsense for the most part, speaking of things such as Pythos ans Silver Eyed Ones, signs if her coming madness "The shifters are searching for the lamb. The stupid, stupid lamb, that fell in love with the masochistic lion," My hand stilled. How could she have known about that? Yes, I had told Brenna of that day in the meadow, but I had never recounted exactly what had been said. "But they won't find her, she will remain lost forever," Brenna sighed "A great change is upon us, hell's gates are to open and the demons will be unleashed. Blood will be shed, no one will be spared," I shuddered, somewhere in the distance, whether real or in my head, a clock struck midnight.

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><p>Edward's Point of View:<p>

How is it that I was foolish enough to believe that leaving Bella was for the best? That it was the only option. I am a fool. For one hundred years I lived alone, mateless watching as my family one by one found their other half, the Yin of their Yang. I believed that one day I, like my family, would find the perfect mate. I soon found that was impossible. My gift forced me to see the inner workings of everyone's, human, vampire, and werewolf alike's, mind. I could see the thought of every one of my potential suitors, and to be honest I never liked what I saw. Some where to clingy, some just wanted me for sex, and others for my families money. There was no way that I could find a mate when all I could see all of their flaws. But right when I was about to give up all hope of ever finding the one for me Isabella Swan moved to Forks.

To be frank she wasn't much of a girl, she was plain,with dark brown hair, pale skin, and muddy brown eyes. Yes, she was average at best, I couldn't see what the fools like Mike Newton and Tyler Crowley saw so appealing in her. For God's sake the girl could trip while sitting down, she was so clumsy. The only thing worth noticing about her was that, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't see into her mind and this alone interested me. She was the only person I'd ever met who remained mentally mute to me, she was the only one who I could possibly stand being my mate. A little vampire venom to the heart would deal with her unattractive appearance and insufferable clumsiness, and after the change I could train her to be exactly what I wanted in a woman. She would have to be my mate, so I strived to make her mine. It didn't take much all I had to do was save her from a speeding mini-van, and a bunch of hired "rapists", kiss her until she melted and she was all mine. And for the first few months I was satisfied, yes she was far too clingy and all I really wanted to do was suck her blood, but I figured once she was changed and trained she'd be bearable.

But after the disaster of her eighteenth birthday party I needed a little space to think, and to just be free of her. So, under the pretense of protecting her, my family and I left. I planned to come back halfway through her senior year and beg for her forgiveness, but now my plans have been put on hold as the girl I'd planned to train to become my future mate has gone missing.

Nearly a week ago, her parents' cars had been found along a back road completely destroyed in what looked to be an explosion after the two collided. Renee and Phil had been killed, and Charlie was in critical condition, but there was no sign of Bella anywhere among the wreckage, not even a hint of blood, her absence led the Forks Police Station to suspect foul play. Whether Bella was the perpetrator or the victim had yet to be determined.

Sighing, I kicked a piece of scrap metal sitting in the grass. After learning of Bella's disappearance my family had dragged me back to Forks to search for her. However, as our methods were somewhat unorthodox we did not join the search parties, choosing to hunt in the forest alone. But, so far, not even we had picked up the slightest trace of her floral scent, it was as if she had never even been in the car, at the rate we were going we were never going to find Bella, I would never have a mate. This fear led me to visiting the crash site in hopes of finding evidence the humans had missed, so far all I'd found was a piece of Charlie's police cruiser and what appeared to be piss splattered across the road. I was not worried enough to get closer to find out whose piss it was.

Attempting, and failing, to suppress a growl of frustration I turned in the direction of the forest, intending to drown my annoyance in a few gallons of elk's and maybe even mountain lions blood, but stopped short when, in my peripheral vision, I saw a flash of fiery red. My head snapped in the direction I'd seen the red, but there was nothing there. Passing it off as nothing but a trick of the light, I continued on my way. Only to see the flash of red again. I stopped and closed my eyes, if there really was any form of intelligent life out here I would be able to see into it's mind.

For several seconds, I heard and saw nothing, and then I saw myself from behind, standing beside the road my eyes closed and my head tilted to the side. Someone or something was watching me.

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><p>Bella's Point of View:<p>

It was dark. The battery for our little candle had died, plunging the cellar into an suffocating darkness.

"Bella?" Brenna whispered hoarsely, I could hear her groping in the darkness to find me.

I reached out and grabbed her hand "Yes?"

"Are we going to die?"

I inhaled sharply, then winced when the motion caused my broken ribs to start throbbing "Why do you ask?"

"Because," came the soft reply "I'm scared to die, but I know that even if I do it'll be alright as long as your with me,"

Tears filled my eyes, and because Brenna couldn't see me, I let them fall "You're not going to die, Bren," I whispered squeezing her hand "I won't let it happen,"

Brenna remained silent for several moments, then very softly she asked "What about you? Are you going to die?"

"I don't know, Bren. I'm not sure I can survive everything I've been through,"

Some fifty feet above our heads a door slammed and Victoria could be heard cackling.

"Bella, dearest!" she shouted, her voice grew louder as she came closer to the stairs leading down to the cellar "I have a little surprise for you,"

The door flew open, I blinked rapidly at the sudden light pouring into the room, my eyes didn't get much time to adjust before Victoria grabbed my hair and dragged me out of the room and into the living room, where most of her torture took place.

"How have you been?" the redhead asked, as if she truly cared for my well-being "You don't look so good,"

Victoria stepped forward, purposely placing her foot on my ankle. When she settled her weight onto it it broke with a resounding _snap! _"Oh, so sorry," she giggled "Didn't see you there," she kicked my broken ankle harshly out of the way and grabbed me by my neck. Without no effort at all, she lifted me from the ground and held me level to her eyes "You'll never guess who I just saw," she purred, running her razor sharp nails gently along my battered and bruised face.

I couldn't answer as the hand around my neck was restricting me from both talking and breathing, but the question in my eyes was obvious enough.

"I just saw a certain bronze haired vampire," she released my neck, and I fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, gasping for air.

After I had caught my breath I looked up at her, an almost hopeful glint in my eyes "Did you kill him?"

Victoria misread the hope in my eyes, thinking that I was hoping that she hadn't killed him "Not yet," she laughed "Not until I'm done with you. I think I'll let him see your bloody mangled corpse first, then after he's suffered enough, I'll kill him,"

I didn't say anything. This plan seemed acceptable to me, I already knew I was going to die and I had no qualms about Edward coming down with me. Although, with my luck, It would be more than likely that I'd meet him in the afterlife, as we were both no doubt going to hell. Me for leading my parents to their deaths, and Edward for damning me to this tortured existence.

"But I don't think I'm ready to kill you just yet," Victoria continued "You're not primped enough for death just death, there are several bones in your body I have yet to snap," at this she took my broken ankle roughly in her hand and used it as a handhold as she cracked my kneecap into two halves "and there are so still so many places where I have yet to make you bleed," a knife appeared from her sleeve and, quicker than I could see slashed me thrice across my quasi-bare stomach "So many screams I haven't wrung out of you yet," I couldn't hold back the scream as she placed her full weight on my already broken ankle "We've only just begun to get to know each other,"

"Go to hell, Victoria," I panted, sweat streaming down my face.

This only elicited a short, amused laugh from the redhead "Your still as fiery as the day I got you. That's why I like you, Isabella, you're not easily broken,"

I coughed out a weak laugh at the irony of the statement "I used to be, but then I realized some people are just no longer worth your tears," I turned on my side and spat blood on the floor "and some people never were,"

An odd expression settled across Victoria's face, it looked almost like _grief_, but before I could decide if it was really there or if I was just seeing things it was gone, replaced by an expressionless mask.

"And am I one of the few that can elicit said tears?"

I scoffed, but ended up coughing up a mouthful of blood "Hardly," I gasped, catching my breath "The tears I shed in this room aren't shed out of compassion, they're shed because they are forced from me, and nothing else,"

"Either you are incredibly stupid for speaking so rashly to the one who holds your life in her hands, or you are incredibly brave. I prefer to believe the latter, but somehow, I doubt that's it,"

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><p>Edward's Point of View:<p>

"I'm telling you something was here!" I roared at my family, pointing to the a clump of bushes sitting some ten feet away from the spot where I'd been standing when I felt someone watching me "I'm not crazy!"

"We know your not crazy, Edward," Alice said placatingly We're just saying there's nothing here, not even the slightest scent. Nothing can hide their scent scent from us

"Maybe the stress is getting to you, son," Carlisle said gently, placing his hand on my shoulder "Maybe your worry is causing you to imagine things,"

I shrugged his hand off "Fine just pass this off as nothing," I snarled, stalking off toward the treeline some fifty feet away "But just remember that your foolish mistakes could very well cost Bella her life,"

Behind me I could hear Esme stifle a sob, and from the thoughts of my coven my words had struck hard, but at the moment I couldn't give two flying shits. If my coven wanted to be idiots, fine by me, they could knock themselves out, but it wasn't alright when their ineptitude cost me my future mate.

_Edward, I know your stressed, and Bella's disappearance is taking its toll on you_, Alice called out to me in my mind _But you have to remember that we loved Bella just as much as you did, so, please, don't take your anger out on us. Come back, let's work this out._

"I'm going hunting," I snarled "Don't bother me, I'll be back tomorrow,"

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><p>Bella's Point of View:<p>

Nearly a fortnight had passed since the day Victoria had told me that Edward and his family had arrived at Forks to help in the search for me, and in the space of the fourteen days I half expected the Cullens to find our prison and rescue us, but to my surprise they never did.

Personally, if it had just been me in La Chambre de Torture I wouldn't have given a fuck that the Cullens had so far failed to show up, but I wasn't. I had Brenna with me, and day by day she was getting worse. She no longer spoke to me, and only rarely spoke in her sleep anymore. Her sanity was slipping. Come another fortnight she'd be nothing more than a vegetable, two weeks more and she'd be dead.

"Bella?" Brenna whispered quietly "They won't stop,"

Startled I sat up, this was the first time Brenna had spoken in nearly three days. Solemnly I crawled to Brenna's side and allowed her head to rest in my lap "What won't stop, honey?"

"The voices," her voice was strained, as if it was causing her a great effort just to formulate words "They're telling me that soon we'll be bathed in the breath of Hephaestus, that the rise of the af Lys and ad Gang is fast approaching,"

I stroked Brenna's hair, being careful to avoid the open wounds hidden in her thick dark hair "Of course you do, sweetheart, but remember what I told you. Don't always listen to the voices," Brenna was barely younger than me, only a year junior, but she had become so delirious lately she seemed much, much younger.

"But I'm tired," she coughed "So tired, the voice said I could sleep when this was all over,"

"But you can't," I said desperately grabbing her hand "Bren, you can't go to sleep, not yet," my heart constricted "If you go to sleep now you won't ever wake up," I could barely suppress a sob at the thought of my sister dying in this terrible place "Just hold on a little longer, we can make it through this,"

"Now, now," a sickly sweet voice said from above my head "don't get her hopes up, Isabella, I've figured her usefulness has just about run out. She doesn't scream anymore, no matter how hard I try to get her to. She's so _boring_,"

Snarling ferally, I shielded Brenna's body with my own "Leave her alone, Victoria," I hissed.

"And what is a little human going to do to stop me?" she sneered taking a step closer.

I threw my arms out "Don't," I warned "Don't come any closer," I knew that there was no way I could protect Brenna from a vampire infinitely faster and stronger than me, but there was no way in hell I was going to sit back and watch as she was taken and killed by Victoria.

The redhead laughed derisively, in a blink of an eye she threw me across the room and I hit the far wall, the sounds of my ribs snapping echoed throughout the room.

"You would do well not to interfere, Isabella. Your time will come soon , but you'll have to wait your turn,"

As she lifted Brenna from where she lay immobile on the ground I tried once more to stop her. Ignoring my numerous broken bones, I lunged at Victoria, but before I could even get ahold of her she sapped me mid-lunge, throwing me against yet another wall, and dislocating my shoulder.

"Please," I whimpered, but it was too late. Victoria had gone and she had taken Brenna with her.

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><p><strong>AN: I know this is one of the shorter chapters, but I needed this as something as a filler to describe Brenna and Bella's time in captivity, how they became so close, and how Edward truly views Bella. I promise the next will be infinitely better (and longer)**


	4. Chapter Three: Of Death and Dying

**A/N: Sorry this took longer to post than before, but I got kind of sick and wasn't able to finish 'till like three hours ago, and it isn't even how long I wanted it to be so you can expect a fast update. Anyway on an entirely different note, yesterday, or early this morning, I checked my poll and I saw the most extraordinary thing. Other had received it's first vote ever! Yes you heard me, other now has one vote, courtesy of Chaynne212. Who voted for Marcus.**

**Alec:10**

**Edward:5**

**O.C.:2**

**Other:1  
><strong>

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: No matter how many times I wish it, I will never own Twilight.<strong>

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><p><em>Death is not the greatest of evils; it is worse to want to die, and not be able to<em>

_ -Sophocles_

Brenna's Point of View:

I remember speaking, saying something to Bella about Hephaestus, about something call af Lys and ad Adgang, about _sleeping. _I remember my throat hurting too, how badly it hurt whenever I spoke all I wanted to do was remain silent, like I had been doing for however long now. But I knew that I couldn't, I _needed _to tell warn Bella. I can't remember if I did though, I can't remember what I told her. I spoke, I said _something_ to her, and then I was flying, I still am in fact. The world is whipping around me in beautiful colors of sky blue and emerald green. Although, it would be so much better if it wasn't so terribly bright. The light is hurting my eye horribly. I wonder where I am to have such a bright light hurting my tender eyes.

_The time has come_. Faintly I felt my physical body slam to the ground breaking a few bones in the process, but I was distracted by the voice that had, like Bella, become a companion through these torturous days. _The woods so lovely and dark and deep hold secrets that have yet to be told. Secrets that just may alter your life._

So I was in the woods, outside. I hadn't been outside in months, Bella would be so jealous.

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><p>Victoria's Point of View:<p>

I was infuriated that after only two months of relentless torture one of my captives had already become insane, but I suppose it was only to be expected. Humans were made of weaker stuff than immortals and crumbled far earlier than we would. At least I would receive some sustenance from the girl before I returned to continue with Bella.

Finding a nice spot for myself in the forest I dropped Brennamine unceremoniously onto the ground, and smirked when I heard a few of her bones snap. Maybe that would get a reaction out of her. It didn't. She continued to murmur the nonsense she determinedly spouted during our daily torture sessions.

"So lovely dark and deep," the girl murmured.

"Worthless piece of shit, barely good for anything" I snarled, kicking her in the ribs.

There was a snap far off in the trees, a deer no doubt, or a rabbit fleeing from my scent, paying it no heed I knelt beside the girl and fastened my teeth into her neck.

That's when I heard it a low throaty growl sounding from the trees, I ignored it and slowly began sucking the blood from her veins, savoring the taste and the way it cooled the irritated tissues of my throat.

Several feet behind me there was another growl closely followed by the thick stench of wet dog. I released the human and turned slowly a hiss building in the back of my throat. Behind me stood six horse sized wolves, their lips pulled back to the show the row upon row of dagger like teeth that could easily tear me to scraps. Werewolves.

Damn it. Why can't I have just one good meal to myself? These humans are far too much trouble for my liking..

Furious I growled dangerously at the beasts before taking off into the trees.

And they followed.

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><p>Brenna's Point of View:<p>

The pain had begun at the base of my throat, nothing more than a prickle of fire eating away at my skin, but then it began to grow and spread throughout the entirety of my body. I was on fire.

Faintly, I heard the padding of retreating footsteps and angry snarls, they scared me even worse than this burning pain.

_Pitter patter through the trees little one. Find shelter in the safety of the hollow_. _Tears of the sky will conceal your path._

I always listened to the voice. The voice knew what it was talking about, I had no real reason to disobey it now, so with a great effort I lifted my arms and dragged myself along the mossy ground just as rain began to fall.

_Right when I was beginning to get hot_. I giggled madly to myself and continued on until I reached a large oak covered in hanging vines. Behind the curtain of flora was a hollow that just may be large enough for me to fit in. And I did.

And there I waited, burning, for my transformation to end.

* * *

><p>Victoria's Point of View:<p>

The mutts gave a good chase, I'd give them that, but I was far too skilled in the art of evasion to be caught by them now. They managed to follow me almost a quarter of the way to where I kept the girls, or now girl, when it started to rain. The water washed away all traces of my scent, and because this was the very thing that the wolves were using to track me, the pack confounded as to where to go. But it would only be a matter of time before they found me, and in extension, Bella. I'm no longer safe here. The wolves will eventually run off to tell the Cullen's of my presence, and with the psychic, mind reader, and five other powerful vampires on their side, I'll have no chance of doing the one thing I was programmed to do. Survive.

I cursed, I had been having so much fine with Isabella and Brennamine, and now I'll have to give it all up because of the damned wolves.

Snarling. I leapt from the tree, I'd been hiding in, and ran as fast as I could to the little hut where I kept Bella. It's time to end this.

* * *

><p>Bella's Point of View:<p>

The house was unbearably silent without the steady, even breaths of Brenna as she slept peacefully at my side. Without the whispers from my best friend as she told me of the hope that her hallucinations were giving her. Brenna was gone. I had failed to protect the one thing that actually meant something to me. And because of my failure my sister was gone.

The silence was shattered by the sound of the front door slamming shut with a resounding thud, within seconds Victoria was standing over me, her eyes only a shade darker than they were before.

I ignored her, staring straight through her as if she wasn't even there. Just like Brenna had done only seconds before she was taken. My heart clenched.

"The game's up, Isabella," Victoria said, in her high girlish voice "They've found us,"

Slowly, I brought my eyes back into focus, to stare directly at her.

"I had been making a meal of your little friend when the wolves found me. They couldn't do anything about dear old Brennamine, so they chased after me. I managed to get away, but they'll find us eventually, and they'll bring the Cullen's with them,"

"Then just kill me," I spat "Do it and get it over with,"

Victoria studied me for several seconds, before laughing that infuriatingly beautiful laugh "You know I don't think I will. You deserve this, the agony, the ever present pain of losing the one you love most. It's terrible isn't it? All you want to do is die, you don't care about life anymore, the world is meaningless to you. I would know. Because of you, I have had to endure such agonies, it seems only fitting you should do the same,"

My face went colorless.

"Yes, you know what I'm about to do, and there's no stopping it. When I'm done with you, I'll run across the path of those mutts, I'll lead them away from you," Victoria laughed gleefully "I'm cursing you, Isabella. I'm cursing you to an eternity of heartache and loneliness. May you always feel my pain,"

Then she leaned down and bit my neck.

* * *

><p>I did not feel the pain. I felt no burning, no unendurable, indescribable agony. No, instead I felt grief grief, anger, self pity, but most of all I felt an enormous sense of loss.<p>

I would have taken the burning any day.

For three days and three nights I lay in the room that had imprisoned me for so long unaware of the change that was occurring to my body.

For three day and three nights I stewed in my own personal vat of pain and misery.

For three days and three nights I listened to my heart gallantly struggle against the blazing inferno that I could not feel. And I listened as, on the third night of my transformation, my heart stuttered once, twice, thrice then fell silent. I was no longer human.

Slowly I cracked my eyes and allowed them to adjust to my dark surroundings, then, cautiously, I took a deep breath. The room smelled of dried blood, unwashed bodies, and tears, a combination that did not help to soothe the ragged burn in the back of my throat. I was thirsty. I needed to hunt. I needed to leave this tiny abandoned cottage, but in doing so I would be risking running into a stray hiker or rare woodsman and losing control. I didn't think I could withstand the guilt I knew would burden me if I killed some innocent soul.

But I needed to hunt, I really needed to hunt.

A sudden pang of pain in the back of my throat erased all thought. Throwing all care to the wind I stepped from the tiny room I'd remained in for so long then broke into a run, within seconds I was free from the tiny abandoned cottage and burst into the forest. A laugh bubbled from my lips as I took in my surroundings, the clear azure sky, the frothy green trees, and crisp wind whipping my hair into one wild, windswept mass. As I ran all thought were swept from my mind, left to catch up at a later date. Caution be damned.

A distant angered snarl alerted me as to where my first meal would be found. Grimly, I darted through the trees until I came to a large sloth of bears, two of which were snarling over the carcass of some indistinguishable animal, but their attention snapped to me as I burst into the small clearing. Thoughtlessly I crouched into a hunter's position, then I pounced, quickly draining three of the six bears, allowing the remaining three to flee, but I had killed three inoffensive grizzlies.

Tears stung my eyes as I stared at the carnage that had been my meal. I hadn't asked for this. I hadn't asked to become this monster, for that was what I was. A monster. Desperate to get away from the remains of the dead animals I leapt into a run, fleeing the little clearing in the mountain. For hours I ran, allowing my instinct and senses to keep me away from anything I might find edible and allowing my feet to carry me wherever, until finally I stopped.

I was in a meadow, a meadow that was all too familiar to me. Yet this magical place looked as if it had aged some twenty years since the last time I'd seen it. The once bight happy flowers were slumped in defeat, a gray hue staining their wilted petals. The sun was blocked by the canopy of trees that had grown over the light, blue sky. There was no happy trilling of birdsong, no snaps and rustles as frightened animals scurried away from my approaching presence. This place that had once been so filled with magic was dead. And it was all because of him. What little blood remained in my body boiled at the thought of the bronze haired, golden eyed vampire that had stomped my heart out without a second's hesitation. Furious I paced around the dead meadow, if I had never met Cullen I would be with Charlie right now, or hanging out with Jessica and Angela like a normal girl. But I'll never be normal, never again. Edward made sure of that when he left me alone in this god-damned forest practically handing me to Victoria on a silver platter. I growled and slammed my fist into a nearby tree, then growled even louder when it toppled over. What had that innocent tree done to deserve such a cruel fate?

Red tinged my eyesight as I knelt and ripped two thick branches from the fallen tree. This meadow doesn't deserve to suffer like this, no one should. So I'll put it out of its misery. Furiously I rubbed the two dry branches together until a thin waft of smoke trickled into the air, I rubbed harder and to my delight a small fire lit the branches growing larger as it consumed the dying wood and sticky tree sap contained within it. Recklessly, I tossed the burning timber into the middle of the clearing and began darting around the meadow collecting more kindling for my fire. Within minutes the small fire had turned into a blazing, uncontrollable inferno eating anything in its way. The meadow, with its bright flowers and faint traces of magic was now truly dying. And I loved it. Gleefully, I danced around the fire laughing madly as the last of my old life crashed and burned right before my very eyes.

Eventually, my mirth subsided and I settled a short distance away to watch the fire reared as it reared higher and higher. It held such a terrible beauty, an unstoppable force. The smile faded from my face, this was the only thing that could end my curse. All I had to do was step into the fires warm embrace and it would all be over, I could see Brenna, Renee, Charlie, and Phil again. I could tell them how sorry I was. I could tell them how much I loved them.

An odd itching irritated the backs of my eyes as they struggled to produce tears, despite their inability to do so. There was nothing left for me here.

Slowly, I climbed to my feet and walked close enough to the fire to feel the warm tongues of flame reaching out, but not quite touching, my skin. If I were to step forward, only a few feet it would all end, my pain, my suffering, my grief, all of it gone.

_Death is a fickle thing, _ a voice, neither male nor female echoed in my head, _as volatile, as inconstant as the stars above.__Now is not your time._

I giggled quietly to myself. It has finally happened, after being both mentally and physically tortured by Victoria I have finally gone insane. Another short spurt of laughter burst from my lips, an insane immortal, how very funny.

How very funny. I plunged my hand into the fire.

An odd tingling race up my arm and throughout my entire body as I took another step forward, submerging my entire body in flames. I waited.

I waited for the pain to replace the soft tingling. I waited for death to step froward and take me in his arms. But it never came. That's when I began screaming.

I had no way out, if fire couldn't kill me, what could. I was well and truly cursed. I threw back my head and screamed at the sky. I wanted my family. I wanted my mother, my father, my stepfather, and more than anything I wanted the one who knew me best. I wanted my best friend and sister, Brenna.

"I'm so sorry Brenna," I sobbed "I'm so, so sorry. I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you. I'm sorry that you had to be dragged into such a world. I'm sorry that I couldn't save you. And I'm sorry that I can't even die for you,"

I fell to my knees, my face buried in my hands. Around me the fire still wrapped in a never ending dance around me, but I couldn't feel it.

All I could feel where a pair of familiar arms wrapping around me, pulling me into a tight embrace. She was singing to me, a soft lullaby I once sang to her when she was agitated beyond consolation.

I looked up and relief flooded me as I realized that the fire _had_ killed me. For staring down at me was the pale, beautiful, but now silver eyed face of my sister.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: O.k. There you are Chp.3, not as long as I would have liked it to be, but that can't be helped.**

**Review Response:**

**livinginthemomentnow: I don't quite understand, r u gonna finish the rest of the story here or as part of the original...? Oh and ur a great writer :) **

**Me: Firstly thanks, I do hope I'm as good as you guys keep telling me I am. And second, I will be starting this story, Blue Moon: The Awakening, where the original Blue Moon began, and I'll follow the original plot line, while also smoothing along the process of the stories progression. So in better words, Blue Moon: The Awakening is the original Blue Moon, just edited. I hope that explained things. If it didn't just tell me.**


	5. Chapter Four: Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dum

**A/N: Sorry, this one took so long to post, I've been sick for the past couple of days (And still am) but I'm hoping that it's length will make up for that. Oh, by the way this chapter has a slight Harry Potter spoiler. I know, what your thinking, _Why would there be an HP spoiler in a Twilight universe story? _Well, all I can say is read and find out.**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: Yeah, I still don't own Twilight. But Brenna is mine XD<strong>

* * *

><p><em>If<em>_ you're going to be two-faced at least make one of them pretty._

_-Marilyn Monroe_

Unseen by both Brenna and myself, the fire I had so determinedly set cooled down to a soft smoldering ember around us, as slowly we recounted all that had happened to us from the moment we were separated, to our reunion.

"So wolves arrived just before she drained you?" I asked, after Brenna had finished with her tale "And she _ran_?"

Brenna nodded "It was so weird, she seemed to be truly scared of them, but how could wolves kill something as indestructible as a vampire,"

I sat quietly for a second, mulling over the thought. Victoria wouldn't run unless she was positive she would be unable to beat the beasts. But why would she run away from something whose strength paled in comparison to her own?

And then I remembered.

"Brenna?" I queried "Do you remember when I told you about how I got Jacob Black to telling me about the legends of the Cold Ones?"

"Yes," she replied, an unnerving grin stretching across her face "You seduced the poor boy into spilling his tribe secrets,"

If I had been still human I would have blushed, so to make up for the loss of rd-tinted cheeks, I smacked my sister on the arm "I did _not_ _seduce him_, I simply batted my eyelashes a few times, and maybe flirted a little but. But by no means did I _seduce _him,"

Brenna's grin grew wider, but otherwise she left the topic alone, reverting to our original topic "I remember the day you told me about that, but you never went into much detail. Tell me now,"

I grinned at her forwardness "A long, long tome ago, several centuries prior to this day the Quileute tribe settled in La Push and became efficient fishermen and shipbuilders. As time passed, other peoples coveted their land and moved against them for it. The tribe was small and could not defend themselves, so they took their ships and left the land. At sea, Kaheleha used the magic in his blood to defend it. He left his body as a spirit. He was the first Spirit Chief in Quileute history.

"Kaheleha taught his men this magic and together they left the ships in spirit form, leaving their bodies behind under the care of the women. Though they could not physically hurt the enemy, the warriors had other ways. They blew fierce winds into enemy camps; they could make great screaming in the wind and could manipulate animals to do their bidding. Animals were the only ones that could see them and help. The invading tribe had packs of thick-furred dogs to pull their sleds in the north, and which were set against them. Bats were brought out of the cliff caverns. As a result, the dogs and bats won and the survivors of the invaders scattered thinking the harbor cursed. The Quileutes released the dogs, who ran wild, and returned to their bodies

"Generations passed and the last of the great Spirit Chiefs came to be. Taha Aki was a man of peace and was known for his wisdom. However there was one man named Utlapa who believed that they should use their magic to expand their control over the Hohs and the Makahs, building an empire. When the spirit warriors left their bodies their minds were all connected with each other. Taha Aki did not like what Utlapa wanted and banned him from the tribe. Utlapa left and hid in the nearby forest.

"Taha Aki was vigilant and protected his people even when there was no danger. Every so often, the Spirit Chief would leave the village to a sacred and secret place in the mountains. He would leave his body behind and searched the surrounding areas for any dangers or threats. One day, Utlapa followed Taha Aki planning to kill him, but as he waited for him to leave his body he hatched another plan. Utlapa left his body, took Taha Aki's body, and killed his own. Taha Aki knew immediately what was happening when Utlapa joined him in the spirit world. He raced back to his sacred place but was too late. He followed his body in his spirit self down to the tribe. For weeks he watched with despair as Utlapa made sure everyone believed he was Taha Aki. Then Utlapa's first edict came: no warrior was to enter the spirit world because he had a vision of danger, but in truth he was afraid of Taha Aki. Utlapa took liberties with the tribe that no one ever dreamed of. He took a second and a third wife, even though Taha Aki's wife still lived. Eventually, Taha Aki brought a great wolf down the mountains to kill Utlapa and free the tribe, but Utlapa only hid from it behind his warriors. The wolf ended up killing a young man, making Taha Aki's grief greater.

"Taha Aki had been away from his body long enough to be in agony. He felt doomed of never being ever to cross the line between life and death. The great wolf followed him through the forest and Taha Aki felt jealous of the animal; at least it had a body and a life. At that moment the Spirit Chief had an idea that changed the future of the Quileutes. He asked the animal if he could share his body with him and the wolf complied. As a single being, the wolf and the man went to the village. The people feared the wolf, shouting for the warriors' help. The warriors came with spears in their hands, but they stopped in surprise of what the wolf was doing: the wolf was retreating from the warriors and trying to yelp the songs of their people. The warriors realized what it was doing and could only think that it was being influenced by a spirit.

"An old warrior, Yut, disobeyed the orders of the false chief and left his body. Yut gathered the truth in an instant and welcomed Taha Aki. Almost instantly, Utlapa realized what had happened and raced towards Yut's body with his knife. The other warriors were confused. Yut went back into his body but could not fight Utlapa off before warning the others, as he was too old. Taha Aki watched as Yut's spirit left the world and he returned to the wolf's body feeling a great rage. The wolf shuddered and transformed into a man before the eyes of the warriors. The man did not look like Taha Aki's body, but like his spirit self, which the warriors recognized instantly. Utlapa tried to run but Taha Aki had the strength of the wolf and killed him. Upon realization of what had happened, everything returned to normal. The only change he kept in place was the forbidding of spirit travel. From then on he was known as the Great Wolf or the Spirit Man. He led the tribe for many years because he did not age. He fathered many sons, who in time found that they too could turn into wolves on reaching manhood. However, they were all different because the wolf form reflected the spirit of the man. Some became warriors like Taha Aki and did not age, others did not like to transform, and grew to ripe old ages. "So you see Bren?" I asked finally concluding the story. Silently, she nodded "The Quileutes are werewolves,"

The fact that the Quileutes were werewolves was more than a little unappealing to me. My inane desire to die had long since been extinguished, gone the moment Brenna had pulled me from the fire not even a few hours ago. I no longer wanted to die, and I felt that if we overstayed our time in the Hoh Rainforest, the very forest the werewolves, our mortal enemies, resided, as it was on their reservation.

But before I left, I had to see what had become of my family. I knew that they would most likely be dead, but I at least wanted to visit their graves.

* * *

><p>"So do you think I would be easily recognized?" I questioned my sister.<p>

She shook her head and dragged me about a quarter mile to a little tree, with a hollow just barely big enough for one of us to squeeze into. In it were various pieces of junk; a large pile of coins and a few bills of one ten, and even a couple of twenties, three or four keys, and the rearview mirror of a car. She handed me the mirror.

Warily, I looked into it, then promptly dropped it, cracking it a little.

"Seven years of bad luck," Brenna said, giggling at both my fat, and my expression.

"I-don't understand," I said softly.

"Your beautiful, sissy,"

I nodded mutely, and picked the mirror back up, it was true. I was incredibly, even more so then Rosalie (something I would have taken great pleasure in taunting her about), but that wasn't what had shocked me so. No, it was the fact that I no longer looked even remotely like myself.

My hair was no longer a deep rich mahogany, it was raven black, exactly like Brenna's, my face had elongated, my jaw becoming thinner and sharper, my eyebrows more angular, and my eye's slanted upward with eyelashes long enough to brush my cheeks when I closed them. And like Brenna's they were a pale shining silver. Reminiscent of liquid mercury.

"We look like each other," I murmured, perusing Brenna as well.

She nodded "I think that when we were in the La Chambre de Torture our blood mixed and we have a little of each other in ourselves,"

I grinned "Now we're sister in everything, _including _blood," my grin faded a little "But what about the eyes?"

"Vampires have either black, red, or gold eyes. If you're a human drinker they'll be red, if you drink animals they'll be red for the first few months after you've been changed, then they'll turn gold. No matter what you drink they'll turn black when your thirsty.

"Silver-silver isn't normal,"

"But when have we ever been normal?" she smirked.

I laughed along with her for several seconds, but then stopped suddenly. Something had just stepped from the forest.

* * *

><p>Edward's Point of View:<p>

The hunt was a waste of time, I found not a single deer, elk, or grizzly bear. The forest was devoid of all life, as if something, or someone had scared every animal into hiding.

What was powerful enough to scare away an entire forest of animals? Only I held that honor. I snarled angrily at the thought of someone having the audacity to be _stronger _than I was, before heading to the mountains in hopes of finding my personal favorite, a mountain lion. However, when I reached the area around the caves where bears frequently hibernated I found several lying dead in a small clearing, their blood drained from their immense bodies. The unmistakeable scent of vampire hung in the air, only a few hours old, and it was intoxicating.

It smelled of all things pure, the sharp, clean scent of running water, early morning mist, and clean linen. All thoughts of Bella and my hunt left my mind, as I ran down the mountain back toward my family.

They were waiting for me, exactly where I'd left them by the side of the road. Alice and Esme looked like, if they could, they would be crying, Rosalie was glaring murderously at me, and Jasper, Emmett, and Carlisle looked slightly upset.

"There's a vampire here," I cried, ignoring the tense atmosphere hanging in the air "It was hunting up in the mountains, there are bear carcasses up their,"

Carlisle immediately took on his role as coven leader "How old is the scent?"

"Only a few hours old,"

He nodded sharply"This very well may be the answer to Bella's disappearance," he said morosely "Edward take us to where you found the scent,"

Scowling at being ordered around, I led them back up the mountain, and to the clearing where the bear carcasses lay.

"The trail goes down the side of the mountain into the Hoh forest," Carlisle observed.

"Werewolf territory,"Esme said with no little dread. She cared deeply for Bella, and if something were to happen to the vampire we were hunting, like for instance it was torn to shreds by a group of volatile werewolves we would lose our only chance of getting information on the humans whereabouts and conditions.

"Come on," Alice cried retracing our steps down the mountain "We have to warn the wolves, or we'll never find Bella!"

I struggled to keep my feelings under control, lest Jasper read them and become suspicious of my reluctant behavior.

We ran, as fast as we could to the reservation, but the moment we arrived we realized that we were clueless as to how we were to warn the wolves. Luckily, the problem was solved when a group of nine hulking werewolves materialized from behind a thicket of trees snarling angrily.

_What are you doing here Cullen's? _the large black furred, alpha, Sam growled, at us.

Quietly, I relayed the question to my family.

"Perhaps, one of you could become human, so that we could speak with each other," Carlisle said calmly "We have something of the upmost to speak with you about,"

Sam growled again, before turning and racing to take cover behind a tree, a few moments later he returned, human and wearing a pair of cutoff jeans.

"What do you want?" he snapped

"We have reason to believe," Carlisle stated "That there is a vampire running free in the Hoh rainforest.

Guttural snarls, rumbled from deep within the wolves' chests.

"Vampire?" Sam hissed "How can you be so sure?"

Jasper pointed at the mountain we'd just descended "At the peak of that mountain," he said "we found several dead grizzlies drained of all blood. The trail of the vampire who killed them clearly went down the mountain into the Hoh forest. The trail can't have been more than a few hours old,"

"Thank you for telling us," Sam said curtly. The wolves and their pack leader turned to leave.

"Wait!" Alice cried "There's something else!"

The Quileutes froze "What?" Sam asked sharply.

"We have reason to believe that this vampire may know something about the whereabouts of Edward's mate, Bella,"

One of the wolves, a shining russet growled, as did the rest of the wolves. An image of Bella curled in the forest, pale, wet, and shivering flashed through their interconnected minds.

Mentally, I sneered at the pathetic image, but I externally I backed up, wincing in emotional pain, not even Jasper would be able to see through my front.

"What?" Esme asked concernedly "What is it?"

"The wolves aren't too found of how we left Bella," I said gruffly, the perfect picture of remorse "No, Cullen," Sam said, angrily "We aren't too fond of how _you _left Bella,"

"I regret leaving," I said softly "But what I did, I did to protect her,"

"Fat lot of good that did!" Sam said, turning red "Look at what your leaving did to her. One of my brothers was close to Bella before she went missing. Her disappearance has affected him, and in extension the rest of us,"

The russet wolf growled in affirmation.

I looked at him, my eyes narrowed. He was Jacob Black, the son of one of the tribe elders. He was also the one who interrupted Bella and I while we were dancing at the prom, to warn _my future mate _to stay away from me.

"And we apologize for that," Carlisle said gravely "And if you help us find this vampire, he or she may be able to inform us on where Bella is,"

"And we can get her back and keep her protected,"

Jacob changed back to his human form "And what" he snarled, pulling on the shorts tied around his ankle "will you do if Bella doesn't want to go back to you?"

"I'm her mate," I hissed.

"I wouldn't be so sure," the mutt smirked "After you left, Bella and I became very close," I stiffened at the thought of my mate being with that dog, but he laughed humorlessly at my rigidity "No, we weren't _that _close. Bella, was like a sister to me, we told each other a lot about ourselves, and among the things we talked about were_ you_, Cullen.

"In short, Bella hated you. She thought you were a cold, conniving bastard, and said that if she ever saw your sparkly ass again she wouldn't hesitate to set you on fire," the wolves made noises that sound suspiciously like barks of laughter "So I wouldn't be so quick to assume things if I were you. Bella, isn't the same weak human you knew, Cullen. She won't come running back to you with open arms,"

"We'll help you catch your leech," Sam smirked "But if it knows where Bella is, and we find her _alive, _she'll get the choice on who she goes to, and it just might be us. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Carlisle said, albeit somewhat reluctantly.

"Good. My pack will lead the leech to Forks forest, where you'll be waiting. When we get there ambush it, and do whatever you have to do to get answers from it, _if _it even has answers,"

Again, Carlisle nodded "Come on guys," he sighed "Let's get to the forest,"

"We have a vampire to catch," Emmett grinned ferally.

* * *

><p>Sam's Point of View:<p>

Finding the leech was nothing short of easy, their (as the pack had picked up a scent running parallel to the scent the Cullens had described) scent were far too detectable, and even too my werewolf nose, incredibly wonderful, almost _pure. _

In fact we'd been running for only an hour, however, when we found them, or rather heard them. Two sweet voices, conversing, sounding _almost _human.

"Seven years of bad luck," one girl said, giggling.

"I-don't understand," the other said softly.

"Your beautiful, sissy,"

_Sisters_, I thought to my pack, _it'll be harder to take them down. Leeches with that kind of bond tend to be able to work together better, bringing down an enemy easier._

"We look like each other," Girl Number Two murmured.

_If they were sisters, _Jacob said, _why wouldn't they look like each other?_

I shrugged mentally.

"I think that when we were in the La Chambre de Torture-"

_La Chambre de Torture? _Jacob asked. _Roughly, that's The House of Torture, in french._

_ Do you think they're exaggerating? _Jared asked. _Or have they actually been tortured?_

"-our blood mixed and we have a little of each other in ourselves,"

_So their not real sisters. _I guessed, and my suspicions were proved correct when Girl Number Two said happily "Now we're sister in everything, _including _blood," there was a short silence "But what about the eyes?"

_Eyes? _Paul asked.

I growled silently in frustration, and shrugged again. I hated not knowing things.

"What about them?" Girl Number One asked.

_At least we aren't the only ones who don't know what she's talking about. _Quil pointed out.

I nodded, but was too busy listening to the explanation to respond verbally, or well mentally.

"Vampires have either black, red, or gold eyes. If you're a human drinker they'll be red, if you drink animals they'll be red for the first few months after you've been changed, then they'll turn gold. No matter what you drink they'll turn black when your thirsty.

"Silver-silver isn't normal,"

"But when have we ever been normal?"

_More questions. _I thought angrily. _You can't get one question answered without having another cropping up._

_ Let's just get this over with, Sam. _Paul growled.

I nodded. _You're right, Paul. The Cullen's are awaiting. _

As one body, we stepped from the forest.

* * *

><p>Bella's Point of View:<p>

The moment I saw the beast step from the trees, the first thought that came to mind was 'Well_, damn. What luck I have. Running into werewolves on the first day of my immortality'_

"Sissy," Brenna whispered frightened, slowly she stood, walked to my side, and grabbed my hand for comfort.

"Remember what we just talked about, Bren?" I asked softly, squeezing her hand in comfort, she nodded "That's them, Taha Aki's Spirit Warriors. The Quileute werewolves," grinning I dipped a quick curtsy "A pleasure,"

The wolves paused their steady advance to stare at me in shock, I used their moment of indecision to turn and run, dragging Brenna along with me.

It took the wolves all of two seconds to realize that their quarry was getting away, before they began chasing us.

Being newborns, we were able to run fast and hard, but the wolves had had time to get acquainted with their speed and agility, and were therefore able to keep pace with us for the most part.

However, that was exactly how they wanted it. I was unaware that it was a trap until we ran straight into it. The moment Brenna and I crossed into the Forks forest we were surrounded by seven golden eyed vampires.

'_And there goes my luck' _I snarled to myself, although in the outside I was grinning, exhilarated by the chase.

* * *

><p>Edward's Point of View:<p>

Screw Bella. Screw her dead mother, her dead stepfather, and severely injured, comatose father. Screw _everything_. The moment those two girls burst from the trees, hair windswept and exhilarated grins plastered across their faces I forgot about everything, but the fact that I wanted those girls in my bed, _now. _

They were perfect. Their glossy, raven dark hair fell rim-rod straight to just below their waists, with natural streaks of mahogany and a fiery red running through the length. Their bodies were perfectly proportioned, with curves in all the right places, and their faces were beautiful, graceful, almost elven in appearance, and their eyelashes, thick, double rows, that brushed their cheeks whenever their eyes closed, framed a pair of shining silver eyes, that were, beautiful, hypnotizing, and terribly disconcerting.

I was just aching to take them right then and there, but I was fairly certain that wouldn't have went over well with my family. Not when I was supposed to be searching for my lost mate.

So carefully, I rearranged my face into one of hope, and watched, silently, as Sam loped off behind a tree to change back, and dress himself before returning to address the two beauties.

"How did you know who and what we are?" he asked, immediately upon his return.

The girls giggled and exchanged knowing glances.

"We have our ways-" one girl, who seemed to be the oldest, said.

"-of unveiling the secrets of others through various means of persuasion," finished the smaller one "Such as begging,"

"Pleading,"

"Seduction," the small girl looked up at her older counterpart, and laughed, a sweet sound, reminiscent of a soft breeze in the early summer.

"Who told you?" Sam pressed.

"One of your own-"

"-spilled your secrets-"

"-when I batted my eyelashes like so," the older girl fluttered her eyes seductively, nearly bringing the Alpha of the Quileute werewolf pack, to his knees in awe.

"We can pursue this topic at a later date," Carlisle said, stepping from our ranks, to come closer to both the two girls and the wolf pack "But right now, we have more important things to discuss. How about introductions first. I'll begin I'm Carlisle-"

"Cullen," the girls cut in.

"Born in 1643 in London, England,"

"The founder and leader of the Olympic Coven,"

"The second husband of Esme Cullen and the adoptive father of Emmett, Alice, Edward Cullen, and Jasper and Rosalie Hale,"

The two then turned and pointed to Esme "Esme Cullen,"

"Born Esme Anne Platt in 1895,"

"Matriarch of the Olympic Coven,"

"Wife of Carlisle Cullen and adoptive mother of Alice, Emmett, Edward, Rosalie and Jasper," "

"Ex-wife of Charles Evenson,"

Esme stiffened at the name of her abusive, yet currently dead, ex-husband "How did you know that?" she whispered, but the two girls weren't done. Carelessly they named off all of the Cullen "children".

"Alice Cullen,"

"Born in 1901 as Mary Alice Brandon,"

"Member of the Olympic Coven,"'

"Mate of Jasper Hale,"

"Adopted daughter of Carlisle and Esme Cullen,"

"Adoptive sister of Emmett and Edward Cullen, and of Rosalie Hale,"

"Older biological sister of Cynthia Brandon-"

"-who remained human-"

"and has passed away-,"

"leaving a daughter, still living in Biloxi,"

"Moderate Clairvoyant,"

"You know about my past?" Alice gasped, but still the two girls ignored her.

"Emmett Cullen,"

"Born Emmett McCarty in 1915, in Gatlinburg, Tennessee,"

"Member of the Olympic Coven,"

"Husband and soul mate of Rosalie Hale,"

"Adoptive son of Carlisle and Esme Cullen,"

"Adoptive brother of Alice, Edward Cullen and Jasper Hale,"

My family stirred nervously, but the girls weren't done.

"Jasper Hale"

"Born Jasper Whitlock in 1844, in Houston, Texas,"

"One of the few surviving vampires of the Southern vampire wars, who later joined the Olympic Coven,"

"Husband and soul mate of Alice Cullen and the adoptive son of Carlisle and Esme Cullen,"

"Adoptive brother of Rosalie Hale, Emmett and Edward Cullen,"

"Powerful Empath,"

"Rosalie Lillian Hale, born 1915 in Rochester, New York,"

"Member of the Olympic Coven,"

"Wife and soul mate of Emmett Cullen and the adoptive daughter of Carlisle and Esme Cullen,"

"Adoptive sister of Jasper Hale, Alice, Emmett and Edward Cullen,"

"Ex-fiance of Royce King II,"

Like Esme, Rosalie stiffened at the mention of her ex-fiance, but the girls paid no heed to her.

"Edward Cullen," I felt a thrill as the the two beautiful vampires focused on me.

"Born Edward Anthony Masen, Jr., on June 20, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois,"

"Member of the Olympic Coven,"

"Adoptive son of Carlisle and Esme Cullen,"

"Adoptive brother of Emmett and Alice Cullen, and Rosalie and Jasper Hale,"

"Weak Telepath,"

The word weak agitated me to no end. I was not weak, nor was my ability to read minds , not even Aro, the leader of the three Volturi brothers, could delve into a persons mind without skin-to-skin contact. Furiously, I reached out to their thoughts in hopes of proving to them just how strong my gift was.

Unfortunately, I came up blank, or rather their minds did, there was nothing there, Either these girls were as dumb as a box of rocks, or, like Bella, they had a shield of sorts protecting their minds. In truth, I was hoping for the former.

* * *

><p>Bella's Point of View:<p>

"Edward Cullen," I felt my sisters disgust as she forced herself to remain calm whilst uttering the demons name.

"Born Edward Anthony Masen, Jr., on June 20, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois,"

"Member of the Olympic Coven,"

"Adoptive son of Carlisle and Esme Cullen,"

"Adoptive brother of Emmett and Alice Cullen, and Rosalie and Jasper Hale,"

I struggled to hold back a smirk as I said"Weak Telepath,"

Just as I'd hoped a look of barey concealed rage passed over his face, before it fell behind his mask of hope, and concern. A mask that, quite frankly, made me want to barf up the grizzly bear blood I'd consumed several hours previous.

"How do you know who we are?" Rosalie hissed, still angry over the reference to her ex-fiance and rapist.

I grinned "There, there now. If we told you all of our secrets...well, they wouldn't be secrets anymore,"

"Can we at least learn your names?" Carlisle asked

"Our names?" Brenna asked.

"Well, of course good, sir!" I cried "I am Romulus,"

"And I am Remus," my sister said with equal vigor.

"And together we are the kings of Rome!" Brenna and I shouted in unison.

The werewolves and Cullen's looked fairly unimpressed.

"No?" I giggled "That doesn't work?"

"How about Tweedle Dee,"

"And Tweedle Dum?"

"Or Luke-"

"-and Leia,"

"Phil-,"

"and Lil Deville?"

Much to my delight, the Cullens were looking at us as if we weren't all their "Fabian and Gideon Prewitt?" I offered.

"Or Fred and George Weasley,"

"But who's Fred?" I queried "And who's George?"

"How about I be Fred and you be George,"

"But Fred dies in the end!"

"Well Fabian and Gideon die before anything even begins,"

"Fine we'll be Padma and Parvati then," I huffed "Neither of them dies,"

"Okay," Brenna nodded her assent "Your Parvati and I'm Padma,"

"I like it, now that that's settled Parvati-"

"No your, Parvati," Brenna corrected me "_I'm _Padma,"

"Oh screw this," I stomped my foot in frustration "I'm me-"

"-and you're you,"

"Now that introductions are through," I turned back to the thoroughly confused Cullen's "How can we help you?

Carlisle shook his head a few times, as if clearing it of any stray thoughts "My-my son was hunting," he said, gathering his thoughts "when he came across a trail, leading directly into the Quileute territory,"

"_And_," Brenna urged him on.

"And Quileute territory is off limits to vampires. We made a treaty agreeing we would never cross onto their land,"

"You made a treaty, not us-" I said

"-your laws have no effect whatsoever in us,"

Internally I grinned, Brenna and I knew each other so well, we were able to complete each others thoughts.

Carlisle nodded in acknowledgment of our reasoning "Yes, but would you be willing to at least attempt to remain away from the Quileute land? They have perfectly understandable reasons as to why they wish for us not to stray onto their lands,"

"Maybe-" I said sinking down to the ground.

"-or maybe not," Brenna joined me in the grass.

"It all depends on the _real _reason you're here,"

"We're looking for my mate," Edward whispered, "Bella, have you seen her?"

"Hmm, Bella, Bella, Bella," I said, tapping my chin thoughtfully "Long brown hair, pretty doe like chocolate eyes, and pale as a sheet?"

"Yes," he said, his eyes alight with eagerness "That's her, so you know her?"

"Nope," I giggled "Never heard of her,"

Edward snarled, and made as if to attack us, but Carlisle placed a restraining hand on his shoulder, holding him back.

Unimpressed, I turned to Brenna and began to run my fingers through her hair, twining intricate braids through it.

"You really should learn to control yourself," Brenna reprimanded him "Your temper could get you into trouble someday," she flashed him her teeth, in a way that could have been interpreted as threatening.

"Please," Esme said softly "Are you trying to tell us that after describing Bella to a tee, you don't know her?"

"No, no," Brenna giggled "we know her"

"Knew her," I corrected giggling as well.

The Cullen's and the wolves tensed at the use of the past tense, but Brenna continued on "She screamed loud,"

"Hurt my ears," I added nodding my head solemnly.

Esme's eyes widened as we spoke "She screamed loud?" she asked in a strangled whisper "What do you mean she screamed loud? What was wrong with her?"

"The mean one hurt her," Brenna continued

"Hurt us,"

"Hurt us so bad it hurt,"

"Who is the mean one?" Alice asked slowly "What did she do to you and Bella? Do you know where Bella is?"

"Questions, questions," I sighed "Too many hurt my head,"

"Who are you?" Edward ignored my complaints "How do you know Bella?Where is she? How-"

Brenna shrieked loudly "No more!" she wailed "No more,"

"Now look what you did," I scolded, wrapping my arms around my sister "You're hurting her,"

"Cullen," Sam snarled "Back off, their not stable. You won't get answers this way,"

"I like you," I grinned, the turned and glared at Edward "Not him,"

"So," he snarled "you're saying you can't help us?"

"No," I said sweetly, rising to my feet "I'm saying I _won't_ help you, you don't deserve Bella,"

With a wild growl Edward launched himself at me. Calmly, I stepped to the side, and as he passed me reached out and grabbed his arm. The moment my hand made contact with his skin a jolt raced through down my arm and he froze in place, unable to move a single muscle.

"Such a rude man," Brenna said calmly watching Edward struggle to even turn his head, but I knew that underneath sh was absolutely bubbling with curiosity as o what I had did to Edward "All he had to do was ask nicely,"

The six remaining Cullen's watched us tensely as we once again lowered ourselves into sitting positions on the ground.

"What have you done to Edward?" Carlisle asked quietly eying his son.

"I'm keeping him from making a big mistake. Didn't you ever teach your son not to attack unfriendly vampires Carlisle Cullen? Especially if he's looking for his _lost mate_,"

"Please," Esme begged stepping closer to us and, for the time being at least, ignoring Edward "I don't know who you are, or even how you know who we are, but I know that you know something about Bella. Please, _please_ help us. Tell us anything you know,"

"Oh but you don't want to know what we know," Brenna said softly "Horrible, terrible stuff,"

Esme looked close to breaking apart "At least tell us who hurt her. Who was the mean one you said hurt you three earlier?"

Brenna locked eyes with me and conveyed a silent message.

_ What should we do? _She asked silently

I smiled a small evil smile that said one thing. _Play._

I loved Esme, I really did, but she left me as well. She left me to deal with my pain and suffering. She left me half dead.

Brenna grabbed my hand and together we jumped into the trees and began running across the branches, away from the Cullen's, away from the wolves and away from my terrible past. But just before we disappeared into the dark forest without a trace I turned back to the sixteen devastated faces staring back at me, eight of them in the forms of hulking wolves.

"It was the red-head," I said softly "The one with the face of an angel and the heart of the devil,"

The Cullen's stared back at me, their faces identical masks of shock and horror, and that excited me to no end.

_ May you always feel my pain_. Victoria's curse hung over me, but now it seemed somewhat lighter, as if I'd transferred some of the burden to the Cullen's.

My smile grew wider, showing the insanity that had developed from my weeks of rigorous torture. Let the games begin.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well, tell me how you like it. Was it good? Or too much like the original? Did you hate Edward? Or feel sorry for him? Give me some feedback!**


	6. Chapter Five: Weak Wolves and Deception

**A/N: Wow, I'm not going to lie, this was a hard chapter to right, what with my not having my computer (see my profile for an explanation on that) and a major case of writers block. I'm not going to go on some long winded apology and explanation on why it took so long to get this out as I already did that (again see my profile), although I will give another simple I'm sorry and a please take this 5,000+ word chapter as an offering.**

**-**_**GoldenPhoenix**_

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer: As you can tell from the completely un-canoness (is that even a word) of this story, I am not Stephenie Meyers and thus do not own Twilight.<strong>

* * *

><p><em>A lie with a purpose is one of the worst kind, and the most profitable.<em>

_-__Finley Peter Dunne_

Sam's Point of View:

"It was the redhead," the older, raven haired girl whispered, stopping for a brief moment to study us with her unnerving silver eyes "The one with the face of an angel and the heart of the devil,"

My heart sank as I watched the girl leap after her companion. The redhead. I only knew of one beautiful, evil redhead, and if our pack sister was with her she was most likely dead, or worse.

I took several deep breaths, struggling to control myself before addressing my pack "Paul, Jared, Embry, follow their scent and find those girls. If you manage to catch up with them, but by no means are you to force them. They seem to respond better to kindness and gentleness,"

"Don't you think some of my family should accompany you in the search?" the leader leech, Carlisle, asked.

"Don't you think your family has done enough?" I retorted, glaring pointedly at Edward who had only just shook off whatever force had kept him immobile and, blessedly, silent for the past several minutes.

Carlisle ran a hand wearily across his face "We just want to help," he sighed.

"Yes, but will you be helping or hindering us? Because of one of your coven members we may very well have lost our lead on Bella's whereabouts.

"And he will be dealt with accordingly,"

"How? With a slap on the wrist and a gentle scolding? No, until your 'son' can learn to control himself your entire clan will only be a thorn in out side. One weak wolf cripples the entire pack,"

"Bella is just as much ours as she is yours," Bronze-Head hissed "if not more. You have no right keeping us from searching for her,"

"Bella is not a possession," Jacob said with equal vehemence "she is not ours, nor is she yours, and it's about damn time you realized that,"

"You won't be any help to us until you stop seeing her as something to control and start seeing her as a living individual, with a free will and her own mind," I turned to Paul, Embry, and Jared "Go on and try and find those girls. We're wasting our time with this idiot,"

My three brothers barked once, before loping off into the trees.

"I'm going with them," Edward snarled taking several steps forward.

"Control your weak wolf, Cullen," I growled "Or we'll control him for you,"

Carlisle placed a hand on Bronze-Head's shoulder "Calm down, Edward," he soothed "We're here to find Bella, and if that means staying behind to let the Quileutes do their work, then so be it,"

"Fine," Edward jerked his shoulder free to stalk behind a tree and sulk like a petulant child.

The mind reader growled at my errant thought, and despite the gravity of the situation, I couldn't help but laugh.

Bella's Point of View:

Never in my life did I ever run as fast as I did that night, in a desperate attempt to get away from the Cullens, the wolves, and my misery. All I wanted to do was get away. But I couldn't, no matter how fast I ran, no matter how hard I tried, I would never get away. But I sure as hell could try.

And try I did. I ran, and leapt, and dived through the forest and across the trees at speeds that both frightened and exhilarated me. The only time I ever slowed was when Brenna seemed unable to keep pace with me, but that happened very little, and so my furious pace was rarely broken.

"We should never have stayed," I muttered to myself as I leapt over a fallen tree "I should have known this would happen. With my luck how could it not? Why didn't I just leave?"

Apparently, Brenna had heard me and took it upon herself to answer "We didn't leave because you couldn't,"

For the first time since I began, I stopped running to stare surprised at my sister "What?"

"Sissy," Brenna sighed, using her favorite pet name for me "I swear sometimes I feel as if I know you better than you know yourself. You can't leave Forks, because this is where it all began, it just wouldn't be right to you until you were sure it had ended here as well. You need closure,"

My mouth fell open in surprise. Brenna was right, she did know me better than I knew myself, I was unaware that that was the exact feeling I was feeling until Brenna said it out loud.

Brenna gave me a shrewd look "So how do you plan to get closure?"

Sam's Point of View:

Paul, Embry, and Jared had been gone for maybe thirty minutes before they returned Jared was human, and Paul and Embry were still ambling about as wolves, but all three of them had the same look of confusion and defeat on their faces.

I opened my mouth to question them on what they had found, and if need be comfort them, but before I could form any words, Bronze Head was back from behind his tree and was glaring furiously at my three brothers.

"What the hell are you doing back?" he snarled "You should be out looking for my mate, get your asses back out there and keep working,"

Snarls ripped through the clearing as my pack turned glare at the temperamental leech.

"I advise you to shut up, Cullen," I said, my voice barely above a whisper "or I won't stop my brothers from attacking you. We are not your own personal search dogs to order about as you please so do not treat as such. We will not take kindly to it if you do it again as you have now been warned," the pack growled in agreement "Now Jared, can you tell me what you guys found?"

He nodded, rubbing his face wearily "We found nothing, there was no trail, no scent, nothing. It's as if they never existed,"

"Well, maybe you're not looking hard enough," I nearly growled in frustration, Edward just didn't know how to keep his mouth shut "I mean if you had allowed my family to help perhaps we could have found something,"

Paul took a threatening step toward the dim-witted vampire, however before he could reach his intended target, the tiny vampire named Alice walked up to Edward and viciously pulled him behind the rest of his coven "I swear to God, Edward," she growled, with venom unbefitting of her tiny, cheerful looking mien "if the Quileutes don't kill you I sure as hell will, because right now you are getting on my _last god damned nerve_. The werewolves are doing everything in their power to find Bella and you and your constant whining and criticizing is not helping at all. So unless you want to find yourself without both a mate and a head I advise you to shut the hell up, _now_,"

I couldn't help but be impressed by the pixie like vampire. I nodded to her in thanks, and then returned to the initial problem "So you can't find their scent _anywhere_?"

Jared shook his head "Like I said, it's as if they never existed,"

I blew out a tired breath, I swear I was going to go gray before I reached twenty-five "Dr. Cullen, would you like to take a look, or…a sniff?"

The leech gave me a surprised, yet grateful glance "Yes, I would. Thank you Mr. Uley,"

Carlisle motioned for the blond haired, scarred vampire, we knew as Jasper, to follow him as he ran out into the trees. They were back within ten minutes looking just as confused as Jared, Paul, and Embry had.

"We couldn't find anything either," Jasper said, returning to Alice's side "There isn't even the faintest hint that they were here,"

"Great," Alice snapped "thanks to you Edward things are now ten times more difficult than they were to begin with. Are you happy now?"

The leech remained silent, looking almost fearful of his adopted sister. The coward.

"I don't know about you," Jacob said walking up to my side "but I think that for a leech, she's pretty impressive,"

Bella's Point of View:

_ Brenna gave me a shrewd look "So how do you plan to get closure?"_

The answer to the question had been painfully obvious, and yet still Brenna knew what it was before I did. The only way I could receive closure was by seeing my parents finally at rest, by visiting their graves. And that was exactly where we went.

The moment we came to the end of the forest, Brenna and I carefully made our way through the sleeping town of Forks to the Forks cemetery. It didn't take us long to find their graves as they were closest to the entrance, and so it didn't take us very long to notice that something wasn't right. There were only two graves. One was marked Renee Dwyer and the other Phil Dwyer, but there was no Charlie Swan. At first, I had assumed that he had just been placed somewhere else, but after searching the entire graveyard, I could not find his grave anywhere.

"Where could he be?" I whispered, after perusing the cemetery for the eighth time that hour "I can't find him anywhere,"

"Have you ever thought that maybe your dad isn't dead?"

I turned to Brenna, shock evident on my face "Not dead?" I repeated, and then shook my head ridding it of that small hope "No, he has to be dead. There was no way he could have survived that crash, let alone the explosion,"

Brenna shrugged "Then where is he?"

I had no answer to that.

"We'll go to your house. If your dad really _is _alivethat's the most likely place he'll be. And even if he isn't we can use your computer to look up what happened to him, I'm fairly sure the crash and the condition of the three victims will have made the news,"

"And I have clean clothes and a shower there,"

"Clean clothes and a shower?" Brenna sighed longingly. We were wearing the same clothing we had been in when Victoria had kidnapped us and at the moment they were bloody, torn, and burnt, needless to say, Victoria never let us out to go to the bathroom, let alone take a shower.

"A nice long shower would be nice,"

Sam's Point of View:

"So what do we know about these two girls?" I asked, tiredly. It had been nearly three days since the departure of the vampire girls and after wasting nearly the entirety of those two hours futilely attempting to pick up any trace of them we gave up and chose instead to gather in the clearing and find out who these girls were. And I was pretty damned tired.

"They're not sisters," Jacob said "But their close enough to be,"

"How do you know they're not sisters?" the kind faced Esme asked "They look remarkably alike, and like you said they are very close. Close enough to finish each others sentences in fact,"

"Because they said they weren't," I explained "When we first found them they were sitting in a cluster of trees only a ten minute run away from here talking to each other," slowly I recounted the conversation the two girls had had, when I was done the Cullens sat silently for several seconds, digesting the information.

"I think it's all starting to add up now," Alice said quietly "Jacob you were right La Chambre deTorture _does _mean the House of Torture and I don't think they were exaggerating. Their clothing, they were torn to shreds and they smelled of blood, and remember what they said? 'The mean one hurt us',"

My fist clenched "They also said Bella screamed loud. She was with them and it's most likely she was tortured as well,"

"But who could have done this?" Esme whimpered "And _why_?"

Jacob shot her a look of bewilderment "Isn't it obvious?" he asked "Especially after the clue the girl gave us? The redhead with the face of an angel and the heart of the devil,"

The Cullen's continued to stare at us in bewilderment.

"Honestly," I snarled "how can you not remember? Nearly a year ago you killed the tracker leech, James, but you let his mate, Victoria, run free. Now I'm not saying we're much alike, but there is one thing we have in common. Both of us, vampires and werewolves alike, are fiercely protective of our mates. Kill them and we'll do _anything _to avenge them,"

"So it's Victoria?" Alice asked "She took Bella? For revenge?"

I shook my head "Not revenge, she wants to get even. A mate for a mate,"

The small girl moaned and sat down heavily "This is all our fault, we should never have left,"

Finding no fault in her reasoning, but not wishing to invoke the ire of the fearsome sprite I changed the subject "So we already know who Bella is with, but not where, and the only ones who know have been tortured to and thus their sanity is questionable,"

"And we're not even sure what they are," Jacob added.

"Yes, we do," Emmett Cullen said "they're vampires, like us,"

"They could be," Jared said "but they're unlike any I've ever seen before. The smell of vampires is disgusting, sickly and sweet, but they don't smell like that, they smell…nice. And their eyes, like the older girl said, aren't normal, they're supposed to be red, gold, or black, theirs are silver,"

A look of surprise flashed across the Cullens' faces.

"I hadn't even noticed," Carlisle whispered and the other vampires murmured in agreement.

I snorted "For vampires, you lot are fairly unobservant,"

Bella's Point of View:

As a child I had always been afraid of the dark, and of nighttime, I did not know what could be lurking in the shadows, waiting for me to slip up, and fall into their unforgiving grasps. Who would have thought that in a way I would grow to become one of those creatures of the darkness? Who would have thought that I would grow to view the darkness as an ally rather than an enemy? An ally that helped me slip through the town I had lived in for nearly a year before suddenly, and suspiciously disappearing, without being discovered.

"Turn here," I whispered to Brenna, turning to walk up my driveway "This is it,"

Sadly, I looked up at the desolate white washed walls of my home and immediately knew that Charlie wasn't there. The house was cheerless, drooping in on itself, as if sensing the absence of it tenants and missing them sorely.

"Which one is your room?" Brenna asked.

I pulled her around the side of the house "The window right beside the tree," I said pointing to the tall oak "Come on,"

With a sigh, we scaled the tree and leapt through the, surprisingly, unlocked window.

"So this is it," I said, looking around the purple painted room before crossing over to the closet "this is my bedroom,"

"It's nice," she said sitting on the edge of my bed. But she had barely even looked around, choosing instead to study me intently.

"What is it?" I asked pulling a set of clothes from the shelf.

"I don't hear anyone here," she said softly.

"That's because no one is," I tossed her a pair of jeans and a tank top "I figured as much. If Charlie was still in the car when it exploded, or even anywhere near it, he'd be in the hospital. You take a shower while I look it up,"

Brenna nodded and left the room, I sat down in front of my computer and booted it up.

Nearly an hour later, Brenna returned, clean for the first time in months, and I had found everything I was looking for.

"What did you find?" Brenna queried, drying her hair with a towel.

"He's alive," I said "but he's in critical condition. A fractured ankle, a cracked skull, hairline fractures running along his spine, severe internal bleeding, and he's comatose,"

"Where is he?"

"In some hospital in Port Angeles, I'm printing out the address now,"

"When are visiting hours?"

"Eight a.m. to nine p.m."

Brenna glanced at the clock "It's six right now, go take a shower, get your hair fixed, then we'll go,"

"Okay," I sighed pushing back the chair and walking out of the room "I'll be fast,"

"No, take your time," Brenna called "I don't want to see your face 'till seven,"

To most vampires a hospital of any kind is something of a danger zone, what with the hundreds of humans, some with open, freely bleeding wounds, all laid out, easy targets. No normal vampire would be able to withstand the temptation of an easy hunt, that's why it was lucky Brenna and I weren't normal vampires.

To us the hospital remained as it was from our human lives; a bright white, sterile place that reeked of blood, anesthetics, and false hopes. Yes, the place was fairly depressing, but the two of us had a mission. We were here to see my father, and nothing was going to stop us. Well, nothing but the receptionist who was despite his obvious awe of us refused to allow us to get to Charlie forty minutes before visiting hours.

"I'm sorry, miss," he said to me "but I'm not allowed to allow you to pass, not before visiting hours,"

With a great force of will, I swallowed down a growl, we had been attempting to persuade the man to allow us to pass early for nearly ten minutes, but he was dead set against allowing us clearance. Which meant that it was time for a new tactic. Internally, I sighed, it had worked once, why not again?

I smiled dazzlingly and leaned onto the front desk, allowing my scent to wash over the receptionist "I know that you're not authorized to let us pass for another forty minutes," I whispered, my breath fanning across his face "and I'm truly sorry for putting you in this predicament, but me and my sister

_really _need to see Charlie Swan," I reached out and brushed the receptionist's face with the tips of my cool fingers "Couldn't you just give us his room number and happen to be occupied with some very important paperwork while we slip into the back? Please? If we get caught, then you'll have had nothing to do with it,"

The man blinked several times before gulping audibly, his adams apple bulging in his throat "You said his name was Charlie Swan?" I nodded hopefully "Room T-24, good luck,'"

My smile widened "Thank you," I breathed, kissing his cheek, before pulling Brenna away from the desk. When the clerk looked down at the stacks of paper on his desk we ran from the lobby into the core of the hospital.

"T-18," I muttered, reading the steel plaque on the white door "T-19…T-20…" four doors later we stopped.

"T-24" Brenna said softly.

With, a deep breath I reached out and grabbed the doorknob.

"Go on, Bell," Brenna said, sensing my hesitation.

And so I did, cautiously turning the knob, and pushing open the door.

The sight that met me was anticlimactic, at best, the room, like all the others, was painted white with one narrow window, and a single twin sized, railed bed. Beside the bed was an I.V. drip and a heart-rate monitor, emmiting a soft steady bleep. And on the bed was a man, lying so still, he could have been sleeping. Or dead.

"Charlie," I whispered, devastated. My father looked like hell, nearly his entire face was scattered with little scratches and burns, all slathered in some white, nasty smelling cream, his right arm was bound from the wrist to the shoulder in a stark white cast, as was his left leg.

Slowly, I walked to his bedside and picked up the clipboard with a sheet of paper detailing his injuries.

"A fractured arm in three places," I read quietly "a broken leg, five cracked ribs, and severe internal bleeding,"

Silently, Brenna pulled up two chairs, one on either side of Charlie, then ordered me to sit. Numbly, I did.

"What if he never wakes up, Bren?" I whispered "What if he _dies_?"

Brenna studied me sadly for several moments "What if he does?" she finally said "What if one day he wakes up and makes a full recovery?"

"Then I'll-I'll take him home and cook for him, and clean for him, and everything will be exactly like it used to,"

"I don't think that's possible, Sissy. So much has changed, I don't think anything will ever be normal again,"

If anyone but my sister had said something like that, I would have immediately snapped at them, but this was Brenna, the one person who knew me better than even I did. So I nodded and despondently said "You're right, things will never be the same again. Our lives have changed, and not for the better,"

For several minutes we sat in a desolate silence, then, suddenly, Brenna looked up at me "I meant to ask you before," she said "but what did you do to

"I meant to ask you before," Brenna said, pulling her legs under her "but what did you do in the forest? You know. How did you make Edward freeze like that?"

I tilted my head to the side, thinking about that moment "I think that what I did was an extension of a gift I'd had when I was younger,"

"A gift?" Brenna asked "Like the ones we had during our human lives?"

I nodded "Do you remember the night we talked about that? I mean that was only a few weeks ago, but you that was when you were getting worse,"

"I remember bits and pieces," Brenna shrugged.

"Try to remember everything, what were some of the things I told you I could do?"

"You could hear things," my sister said, a far off look in her eyes as she recalled the conversation we had whilst La Chambre de Torture "better than any human, than any _vampire _ever could, you could sense the emotions of peoples, but unlike Jasper Cullen, you couldn't manipulate their emotions, but you _could _manipulate their actions, you could make people do as you wanted…" her voice trailed off as slowly she began understanding "So you think these-these abilities came with you from your human life?"

"I think these abilities and so much more have come into this life. I can almost feel them, pulsing within me, just out of reach. And today, when we were being attacked I managed to subconsciously pull upon them and stop Edward. But what about you?"

"What about me?" Brenna asked, confused

"You, like me, were never human, right?"

A look of comprehension dawned across her face "So my abilities crossed over as well?"

I grinned "I believe they have. What was your strongest gift?"

Brenna sat thinking for a bit "It was always easiest to make people see things, here things, even _feel_ things, that weren't really there,"

"Like a substantial illusion?" I queried, interestedly, and Brenna nodded "So try it," I urged her "make a doppelganger of yourself,"

Brenna nodded, then closed her eyes in concentration. I sat in the hospital chair for five minutes, waiting patiently for something to happen, and after ten minutes past something _did_. The air beside Brenna shimmered, then suddenly a clone of my sister appeared and opened its eyes, grinning.

"I did it," it said in exhilarated.

Enthralled, I reached out and touched the doppelganger. She was solid.

"Bren, you're amazing," I breathed.

The look alike disappeared and Brenna opened her eyes, grinning broadly "I can't believe I actually did it. Usually, all I can make are inanimate objects, but I just made a solid, speaking doppelganger of myself with my eyes closed,"

I returned my sisters grin "Of course you did, you're so much more powerful than you give yourself credit for,"

"Well, so are you," she shot back "Now I want a demonstration, come on, Sissy, manipulate someone,"

I shook my head "I refuse to manipulate you, Bren,"

"Who said it had to be me?" she questioned.

"You're the only conscious person in here, my gift only works on conscious people,"

"Well, my gift only allows me to create inanimate objects, but I just created a clone of myself," she said breathlessly "Don't you see, Bell? We're stronger, if I can make a semi-living being, why can't you wake up a comatose human?"

I sat there for several minutes, lost in thought.

"I think it just might work," I finally said "But it might take awhile,"

Brenna nodded eagerly, and so I closed my eyes and tentatively reached out my awareness to feel for Charlie's emotions so as to determine if waking him up would help or harm his condition.

I should have considered Brenna's words before I did so , maybe if I had I would have realized that when she said our abilities had become stronger she meant _all _of them. And so, without thinking about this, I felt for Charlie's mind, and was immediately swept into his consciousness. Seeing everything he saw (which was only the back of his eyelids), I could hear everything he heard (he had heard nothing in his comatose state), and I could feel everything he felt (the coarse hospital sheets and the uncomfortably hard pillow beneath his head).

I struggled to move my body only to realize that I was no longer _in _my body, somehow I had entered Charlie, and at the moment we were fighting for control of his body. Once I realized what I was doing, and who I was fighting, I guiltily, subdued my father, and then focused on his mind, gently coaxing each part of it to wake up.

At first I didn't receive any response, but slowly, they began rebooting, and I quickly pulled from Charlie's mind, allowing him to do the rest of the work himself.

When I opened my eyes Brenna was staring at me "You've been out for nearly half an hour," she said softly "I was starting to get worried when you didn't answer me. Did it work?"

I nodded, blinking slowly, to regain my bearings "He'll be waking up soon," I said.

Brenna smiled at me happily "Do you think I should put an illusion on you, just to get you to look a little bit like your old self? We wouldn't want him to be waking up to two strangers sitting at his bedside. No matter how beautiful they are.

I grinned mat my sister, and couldn't help but feel a surge of affection for her. She was always thinking of me, doing things for me, even when I didn't deserve it "Yes please," I said sweetly.

Brenna gave me a look of deep concentration, before her grin broadened "All done,"

I looked at her in surprise "Already? Little sissy, you're good," I looked in the mirror mounted on the wall opposite, and couldn't help but laugh in delight. I looked like me again. My hair was still deep black with its naturally colored highlights and my eyes remained silver, but my face was less angular, and my lips were uneven again "Thank you, Bren,"

"Of course, Sissy," she glanced over at Charlie "How long do you think it'll take for him to wake up,"

I looked down at my father as well "A couple more minutes," I said "It'll take him a few more minutes to wake up. He's been in a coma for nearly two months, it'll take his brain a few more minutes to wake up. But before he does, I need to talk to you…"

True to my prediction, Charlie began stirring within the next ten minutes, and in another two his eyelids began fluttering, and he groaned softly.

"Good, god," he complained hoarsely, slowly opening his eyes "I feel as if I've been hit by a bus,"

"No," I said lightly "just a car,"

Charlie turned his head to look at me, his eyes widened "Bell?" he rasped.

"Hi, Dad," I whispered, Charlie struggled to sit up, but I pressed him back down "No, stay still. You're badly hurt,"

"Bell, what happened? Where are we?  
>"We're in the hospital," I told him gently "Don't you remember anything?"<p>

Charlie laid back and closed his eyes "Yes-yes, I remember," he breathed "there was something running beside the car. You told me to stop, but I couldn't. We crashed," he chuckled humorlessly "I hadn't been wearing my seat belt when we flipped backward. I crashed through the back window and rolled off of the hood of your mom's car. When they exploded I wasn't far enough away. I could feel it rattle my bones, I could feel the heat searing my skin, then nothing.

"What happened after that Bell, did anyone else get away?"

I shook my head "No," I took a deep breath, steeling myself for the immense lie I was about to weave "Dad you were the only one to survive that night,"

Charlie's mouth fell open and his face paled "But-but you survived to right? I mean you're sitting right here. You're talking to me,"

I reached out and took his hand "Feel my skin," I breathed "I'm as cold as death," I pressed two of his fingers to my wrist, where you could feel for the pulse "I have no heartbeat,"

"Bella, no! You're alive!"

"No," I whispered "I'm not. Daddy, I'm dead,"

"Then how are you here" he asked me heatedly "How are you sitting here touching me? Talking to me?"

"I'm not. Not really, I'm nothing but an afterimage of the Bella that once was,"

"No! God dammit, Bella! Stop lying to me! You are not dead! You're! Still! Alive!"

The door to the room flew open and a nurse ran in. Ignoring me, she went directly to Charlie's side and attempted to comfort him.

"Mr. Swan," she cried, pushing him down "When did you wake up? What's wrong?"

"Look at me Bella!" he shouted, tears running down his face "You look at me! And tell me the truth right now, young lady!"

"Code One," the nurse said into a walkie-talkie, we have a Code One in T-24. I need assistance,"

Within seconds, nurses and doctors were rushing into the room, and Brenna and I were forced to press ourselves against the back wall. But, even as I moved, Charlie's eyes never left my face and he continued to shout himself hoarse.

"Sir," one doctor said soothingly "Sir, I need you to calm down, and tell me what's wrong. Can you do that for me?"

"Tell her to stop lying to me! She! Is! Not! Dead!"

"Who's lying to you? Who's not dead?" the doctor urged.

Charlie raised a shaking hand, and pointed directly at me "Bella, my daughter. She claims she's dead. Tell her to _stop lying to me_!"

The room fell silent.

"Mr. Swan," the nurse who had called the Code One said tentatively "There's no one there,"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Ooooh, you didn't expect that now did you? I know I'm incredibly rude for leaving you with this cliffie, especially after the long time it took me to update, but all I have to say is, deal with it! Mwahahahahaha, I know I'm cruel. Although, if you review, Chapter Six may come a **_**little **_**faster than it normally would.**


	7. Chapter Six: Final Hour

**A/N: So now that I have my computer back (I managed to convince my mom to give it back a month early) I can begin to update regularly again, starting next week I'll start updating every Sunday, so you can expect a regular update from now on. Also with my newly liberated computer, I've been working on a new story, this one a Harry Potter fanfiction, I'll be posting the first chapter within the next week.**

**Now for the poll, sorry I know I haven't shown it in awhile**

**Alec-10**

**Edward-5**

**O.C.-2**

**Other-2 (Oh my gosh! It's tied with O.C. Now who can I make fun of?)**

**-_GoldenPhoenix_**

* * *

><p><strong>Disclaimer: If I owned Twilight I would be lying on some beach in Hawaii basking in my own awesomeness.<strong>

* * *

><p><em>A man dies ... only a few circles in the water prove that he was ever there. And even they quickly disappear. And when they're gone, he's forgotten, without a trace, as if he'd never even existed. And that's all. <em>

_-__Wolfgang Borchert_

"Mr. Swan," the nurse who had called the Code One said tentatively "There's no one there,"

"What?" Charlie sat up in his bed, despite the many hands attempting to push him down "No, no," he said "She's right there. Tell them, Bella! Tell them you're here! Tell them you're not dead,"

I shook my head sadly "I don't think they can see me, Daddy,"

"Dammit, Bella this isn't funny! Stop lying and tell them,"

"I'm giving you a sedative okay, Mr. Swan?" a nurse said injecting a syringe into Charlie's I.V. pushed down the plunger. So you can sleep for a little, and calm down,"

"No, I don't want a damn sedative. I want you to stop lying to me. _She's right there_,"

"No one is there, Mr. Swan," a doctor said "your injuries are causing you to hallucinate,"

"No. No. No. Bella, please," Charlie whispered, then the drug took affect and he drifted off into unconsciousness.

Slowly, the doctors and nurse filed out, leaving the initial nurse and a doctor behind.

"What happened, Lena?" the doctor asked "Charlie Swan is supposed to be in a coma, like he has been for the past two months,"

"I don't know Dr. Richards," Lena said "I had been walking down the corridor, planning to check on the Mrs. Everdeen in T-31 when I heard Mr. Swan screaming. I came in as fast as I could and called a Code One,"

"It's times like these I wish Carlisle Cullen had never left," Dr. Richards said jadedly "He would have known what to do with Mr. Swan. He would have been able to save him,"

"What do you mean, Doctor" Lena said nervously "Mr. Swan is still alive,"

The man sighed, and ran a hand through his hair "Not for long," he said morosely "Even after two months his internal wounds won't close. We managed to clot them for a bit, but not for much longer. He'll die from blood loss within the next week,"

As the two left the room, I slid down the wall, shocked. Charlie was dying. My father, the one man who had been with me through thick and thin was going to be dead in less than a week.

"Sissy?" Brenna whispered sinking down beside me and laying her head on my shoulder "Are you sure this is what you want to do?"

Numbly, I nodded "It's for the best. At least for now. Maybe one day, after we're both dead, I'll explain to him exactly why I did it," Brenna nodded "Anyway," I grinned, nudging her arm "that was pretty good illusion work, Bren. Making us invisible to everyone but Charlie. I didn't know you could do something like that,"

"Neither did I," she beamed "But I knew that if I could pull it off it would make all the difference,"

"And it did,"

I laid my head against the wall and closed my eyes, breathing deeply. Despite the complete success of our plan, I felt horribly guilty. I mean was it right? When Brenna and I talked it over during the ten minutes it took for Charlie to wake up it had all seemed so simple, so straightforward: trick Charlie into believing I'm dead so that he can have some sort of closure, to be able to live his life instead of wasting it searching for me.

But now that I know he's dying, it all seems rather pointless. He won't have be alive come next week, so what was the point.

"We've done to much to take it back now, Sissy," Brenna whispered, laying her head on my shoulder "All we can do now is finish it,"

"It's amazing how you do that, Bren," I said "Read my mind like that,"

She shrugged "You're my sister, I'm supposed to know when you're upset, and how to make it better,"

"Well, you do a wonderful job at it, and I suppose you're right. We _have _gone to far to back down now. The only way to go now is forward,"

"But where is forward?"

I contemplated the answer for a bit, but I could only think of one course of action "I think that we should go back to the house for today, after Charlie d-" I paused and took a deep breath "after he _dies_ we'll have to leave, but we'll need money. Charlie keeps two thousand dollars taped behind the pictures mounted above the mantle, our 'Rainy Day' funds he called them. We can use that for clothes and maybe a place to stay far, far away from here,"

"And then what?" Brenna inquired.

"Then we'll see what happens next,"

She nodded, then stood saying "Well come on then. There's no time like the present,"

I laughed and stood as well "Fine, but how do we get out without being seen? I'm sure a bunch of nurses will be close by after Charlie's fit,"

Shaking her head, Brenna crossed the room and threw open the barred window "We're not super strong vampires for nothing," she bent back the bars "Make sure you put them back in their place and close the window," then she leapt the three stories and ran across the parking lot before anyone could see her.

Sighing at my sisters bold personality I climbed through the window, pausing to close the window and readjust the bars, before jumping as well, and running to Brenna's side.

"Someone could have saw us," I scolded her, but the effect was ruined by the smile on my face. There was nothing like jumping from a third story window to get your (imaginary) blood pumping.

"Come on," she took my hand and slipped into the trees "Let's get out of here before we start attracting attention,"

We ran the usually thirty minute trip from the hospital five, arriving at my house before someone who had been driving could get to the first stoplight. Without bothering to go to the window this time, we went around back and slipped in through the still unlocked back door.

"You go and get the duffel bag from under my bed," I told Brenna "while I get the money?"

"What about clothes? Do you want me to get some of those as well?"

I shook my head, as I took a school picture of twelve year old me from the wall and pulled free the two hundred dollars duct-taped to its back, "No, the clothes smell to much like human me. It's dangerous to even be wearing these," I tapped the pair of jeans I'd taken from my closet that morning "The wolves or Cullens might recognize the clothes and make a connection. Although that's not very likely, I don't want to risk,"

Brenna nodded "Point taken," she grinned, then turned and dashed up the stairs. Thirty seconds later she was back, gray duffel bag on her arm "Need any help?" she chirped.

"No," I said, pulling down the fifth picture frame and extracting the last two hundred dollars "I'm all done. Let's go,"

"Where to now?"

"Why shopping of course," I smirked "We can't have you walking around in your big sisters hand me down clothes, now can we?"

* * *

><p>Eighteen hours, twenty-six clothing , five hundred dollars, and three grizzly bears later, Brenna and I had satisfied our needs and were once again sitting in Charlie's hospital room. We had been there for nearly an hour, and he had been awake for nearly thirty minutes, but we had yet to make our presence known, hiding behind an illusion Brenna had put up to make us invisible.<p>

"Bell, just talk to him," Brenna said, for what must have been the fiftieth time.

"I can't," I sighed "he must hate me, after everything I did to him,"

"He's your father, he loves you. He doesn't have it in him to hate you. Now stop stalling, I'm about to take the illusion off of you,"

"Wait-don't!" I cried.

"And I'm dropping it,"

The sensation of walking through a curtain washed over me as the illusion fell, then I was visible.

At first, Charlie didn't notice me, but as I crossed the room to sit at his bedside I heard his heartbeat pick up in acknowledgment of my presence.

"Hi, Dad," I said softly.

"Bella?" he asked gruffly.

"Yes?"

"What are you?"

My fist clenched "I don't know what you mean," I murmured.

"How is that I can see you, that I can hear and speak to you, but no one else can?"

I let out a loud, slow breath "Do you really want to talk about this?"

"Yes,"

"Fine," I paused to collect my thoughts "The reason only you can hear and see me is because I'm almost like your guardian angel,"

"My guardian angel?"

I sighed "Yeah that sounds stupid. Let's just say I'm here to keep you company for the remainder of your time here,"

"I'm not following you,"

"Until you die, I'll be keeping you company,"

"And then after I die?"

I shrugged "I'll move onto someone else who needs my help,"

Charlie studied me intently "That's a lonely existence for a girl your age,"

"Who said I'm alone?" I grinned, and Brenna suddenly became visible "Dad this is Brenna, my honorary sister, she's been helping me these past few months and will be with me for…"

"Forever," she beamed.

A small sad smile spread across his face at my sisters open sincerity "You take care of her, Brenna," he said gruffly.

"I always am,"

"Well then," Charlie pulled himself into a sitting position, his smile widening "Welcome to the crazy, screwed up Swan family,"

* * *

><p>Jacob's Point of View:<p>

"They're unlike any I've ever seen before," Jared said "The smell of vampires is disgusting, sickly and sweet, but they don't smell like that, they smell…nice. And their eyes, like the older girl said, aren't normal, they're supposed to be red, gold, or black, theirs are silver,"

A look of surprise flashed across the Cullens' faces.

"I hadn't even noticed," Carlisle whispered and the other vampires murmured in agreement.

Sam snorted "For vampires, you lot are fairly unobservant,"

The leeches chose to ignore Sam's dig at them and continue forward.

"So what do you think this means?" the blond girl, Rosalie, asked "Could they be something more than vampires, or are they doing something in their diet to make their eyes that color?"

"They drink animals," Alice said.

"But is that the only thing they drink?" I asked "Their are legends of some vampires that drink more than just blood,"

Carlisle suddenly looked interested "Yes, but that's exactly what they are _legends_. There has been no conclusive proof that such vampires ever existed,"

"Wait? What?" Emmett cut in "What are we talking about here,"

"Nearly two millennium ago," Carlisle explicated "there were rumors of an entirely different kind of vampires, ones that, along with blood, drank the venom from vampires for sustenance. It made them stronger, and faster, and far more powerful than normal vampires. But they were considered evil for killing their brethren. I can't recall what color their eyes were, though I know they were neither red, gold, or black,"

"So do you think that they could be them?" Alice asked.

"I can't be sure," the blond leader said "They don't seem evil, just-"

"What are you talking about, they don't seem evil?" Edward shouted "Those girls are spawns of Satan. Did you see how much they enjoyed not telling us where Bella was? They reveled in our pain!"

"They are not evil, Edward," Carlisle said sharply "Those girls were tortured, and by Victoria nonetheless. They're confused and probably a little frightened after that, and your attacking them did nothing to help the situation,"

"Oh, so now it's my fault?" he snarled.

"Yes it is!" Alice shouted, in Carlisle defense "If you learned to reign in your temper then maybe we would already know where Bella is. But, no, Edward always does without _ever_ thinking,"

"Don't try to lecture me," he spat turning his attention to the little vampire "This is just as much your fault as it is mine. If you had been watching Bella then you would have seen Victoria take her, and none of this would have happened,"

"_If I had been watching Bella?_," the pixie hissed, dangerously quiet, like the calm before the storm "_If I had bee watching Bella?" _then she exploded "I wasn't watching Bella because you fucking told me _not_ to watch her, you asshole! You told me that Bella was no longer apart of our life and thus I should not watch her," and then, before anyone could comprehend what she was doing, Alice stepped forward and slapped Edward viciously across the face. I knew it couldn't have hurt, but the loud crack that rent the air was oddly satisfying "I've had it up to hear with your shit, Edward," she growled "so I'd advise you to keep your opinions to yourself, or so help me god there won't be anything left of you but a pile of ashes,"

Edward didn't speak again.

"Thank you, Alice," Sam said "I've about had it with Edward, it's good to see that someone can control him,"

"My pleasure," she smirked.

I let out a short bark of a laugh, then turned to Sam "I have to go," I told him "My dad wants me to visit Charlie with him,"

"How is Charlie?" Esme asked worriedly.

"Not good," I sighed, running a hand over my cropped hair "He doesn't have long, he's dying from internal blood loss. He doesn't have more than a week left,"

"Has he woken up yet?"

"Not since the last time I checked. Dad and I are just trying to make him more comfortable during these last few days,"

A morose silence fell over the clearing as everyone assembled mourned the inevitable loss of a great man. It was only broken when I cleared my throat and said "Well, I have to be going, Dad's probably waiting for me,"

"See you at Emily's?" Sam asked.

I nodded "Yeah, we won't be there long. There's only so much time you can spend with a man who's been in a coma for two months,"

With that I phased into my russet wolf and darted back to the edge of the forest where my motorcycle was sitting. When I rode up to the little house I'd lived in since I was born I saw my father sitting in his wheelchair on the porch, obviously waiting for me "You're late," he called out as I killed the engine "What happened?"

"The Cullen's found the scent of a vampire going down into the Hoh Forest," I told Billy as I pushed him up the ramp into my Rabbit, then pulled out of the driveway "we followed the scent and picked up another scent running parallel to the second,"

"Did you find them?" he asked worriedly "We can't have two rogue vampires running around the rez,"

Yeah, we found them," I sighed for what must have been the fiftieth time "There are two of them, both girls, and they are more beautiful than anything. Not like the cold, hard beauty of the usual leeches and they smell pure, like fresh water and clean linen ,"

"Are they like the Cullens? Do they drink animal blood?"

I shrugged "We can't tell, usually the eye color will tell you everything, black means thirsty for every leech, red means they're either newborns or human drinkers, and gold means animal drinkers, but those girls' eyes were silver. When I saw them I immediately thought of the venom drinkers, but the leader leech says the venom drinkers were evil, but not those two?"

Billy's eyebrows creased "How would he know? What did they tell you?"

"Nothing," I snorted "those girls were completely insane, but apparently they knew Bella. Do you remember the redhead we ran into a few days ago?" my father nodded "She was holding Bella and those two girls captive, she was torturing them, Dad,"

He stiffened at this new piece of information "But they got away,"

"I'm not even sure. Like I said, those two girls were insane, all they gave away was that "the redhead with the face of an angel and heart of the devil" hurt them so bad it hurt. But the thing is, they knew everything about us. When the pack first approached them one girl, we think she's the older of the two, seemed to know exactly who were. She called us the Quileute werewolves, Taha Aki's spirit warriors,"

My dad turned to look at me, his eyes were widened in surprise "How could they know?"

"When Sam confronted them they said that the older girl had seduced one of "our own" to spill our tribe's secrets, but we couldn't find anything in each others' mind,"

We spent the rest of the car ride to the hospital, and the trip up to Charlie's room in thoughtful silence, but when we opened his door we both made similar sounds of shock. Charlie was sitting in his bed, his eyes wide open.

When I closed the door with a soft snap he turned his head and grinned at us "Hey, there are my boys," he said, his voice weak but incredibly cheerful.

"Charlie!" Billy cried "How long have you been awake?"

"Since yesterday, although I've been drifting in and out of consciousness,"

Grinning, we made our way across the room, but as I sat down at Charlie's bedside, next to my father's wheelchair the sharp clean scent of running water and fresh linen overpowered my sensitive noise.

"What's wrong, Jacob?" Charlie asked, worriedly.

"Nothing," I said, though my voice was slightly strained "I just hate closed space, and this room isn't very spacey," slowly I stood and crossed over to the window where the scent was strongest, tapping my nose to signal to Billy what was going on.

"So how have you been?" he asked in an attempt to distract the bedridden man "Have there been any improvements?"

"No," Charlie said grimly, coughing vigorously "The internal bleeding is bad, I don't have much time left. Three maybe four days,"

I stopped my careful smelling of the room suddenly overwhelmed with grief. I had known Charlie ever since I was a child, and now he was dying.

"Charlie-"

"No, Billy," Charlie said "don't say anything, I've accepted my fate. I'm ready to move on,"

"Have you had any other visitors?" I asked attempting to both change the subject while also finding out why two vampires were visiting a dying man,"

"Nope, I've been alone these past few hours,"

My shoulders slumped, and I was just about to give up hope, but then I heard him mutter something under his breath, something that sparked a tiny flame of hope.

"Not any living ones anyway,"

* * *

><p>The moment the nurse came to tell us that visiting hours where over Billy and I exchanged quick goodbyes with Charlie before I practically an from the hospital and tore down the street.<p>

"What's going on, Jake?" my dad asked "What happened?"

"The scent I smelled in Charlie's room," I panted swerving to avoid a man on a moped "was definitely from those two girls, what were those vampires doing in his room?"

"What are you going to do?"

"I have to find the pack, we need to have the hospital watched at all times. This could be our only chance at getting some information on Bella, not to mention we have to make sure they don't do anything to Charlie,"

After I dropped Billy off at the house I phased into my wolf and ran into the forest., oddly enough no one was patrolling.

_They must all be at Emily's._

And they all were, when I ran into Emily and Sam's quaint little house it was to find the entire pack assembled in the kitchen eating a hearty dinner.

"Hey, Jake," Embry called out cheerfully "Come get some lasagna,"

"No time," I gasped, desperately out of breath from running the usually ten minute run in three "They were at the hospital…Charlie's room…scent was everywhere,"  
>"Wait, take a deep breath, Jake," Sam ordered "We can't understand you,"<p>

"When Dad and I went to visit Charlie, he was awake,"

"He was?" Jared grinned "How is he?"

"Still dying," I winced at the reminder, but forced myself to keep talking "But that's not what I came to tell you, those two girls that we're looking for, their scent is all around Charlie's room. They've obviously been their more than once and for long periods if time. And when I asked Charlie he told me that he hadn't had any visitors…"

"But?" Paul pressed, sensing that I was holding back a vital piece of information.

"But," I continued "he muttered something under his breath, something he didn't intend for me to hear. He said that he hadn't had any _living_ visitors anyway. Do you think it's possible that Bella told Charlie everything about the Cullen's before she disappeared, and that he _knows_ what those girls are,"

"But why would he lie about not having visitors?" Jared asked "And why would those girls visit be visiting him in the first place?"

"Well, they said they knew Bella, right?" Quil said "And if they did she probably told them about Charlie. Maybe they're telling me him about where Bella is, or how she's doing,"

"Do you think so?" our newest pack brother, Seth, asked hopefully. He and Bella had been close before her disappearance, Seth had viewed her as his surrogate sister, as Leah, his real sister, wasn't all that pleasant to be around.

"We'll patrol around the hospital," Sam said "Just in case they come back, this may be our only chance to talk to them,"

"I can talk to Charlie next time Dad and I go visit him, since he's awake now that'll probably be tomorrow, we don't want him to be lonely these last few days,"

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><p>Just as I had guessed my dad woke me up at around noon.<p>

"Wake up, Lazy Bones," he called from my doorway "We're going to visit Charlie in five," Groaning loudly, I rolled out of bed and pulled on the first clean shirt I could find.

"Let's go old man," I grunted pushing Billy into the car .

"What's your hurry?" he asked as I raced down the driveway and onto the mainstreet.

"I'm on a mission," I said "Quil thinks that because those two vampires where with Bella for some time they know where she is,"

"And you think that they told Charlie where she is,"

I heaved a sigh "But if they did why wouldn't he tell us?"

When we arrived at Charlie's hospital room, it was to find him lying staring at the roof, pale faced and ashen.

"Hey, Charlie," Billy said quietly, rolling over to his side.

"What's going on, Billy, Jake" he grinned, his eyes half shut "Sorry I won't be much fun today, the doctor said my blood isn't clotting anymore, I'm losing blood fast,"

"It's okay," I said, unconsciously inhaling deeply, the vampires had been here again despite the pack's patrol around the hospital "we just want to talk,"

He gave me a confused glance "Sure Jake. What about,"

"We may have a lead on Bella's whereabouts," I said.

Charlie's opened his eyes "What?"

"A few days ago," I explained "we found two girls who claimed to have been with Bella for the past two months, they said they were being held captive by a woman she used to know, Victoria. Those two girls got away, but Bella didn't,"

"Did you ask where they were kept?"

I nodded "Yes, but they're unstable, Victoria did some terrible things to them, they didn't give us a straight answer. The Cullen's were with us when we found them,"

"The Cullen's are back?" he snapped "Those bastards,"

"I agree wholeheartedly," I said heatedly "when the girls wouldn't give us the answers Edward Cullen got mad and manhandled one of them. She got free and the girls ran, and we haven't seen them since,"

"So why are you telling me this?"

"Have you seen them?" Billy asked "Have they contacted you at all?"

"They'll be very recognizable," I said "Do you remember Rosalie Hale?" he nodded "These two girls are hundred times prettier. They have long black hair, pale faces, and silver eyes, they're incredibly close, they sometimes even finish each others sentences. If they hadn't said otherwise themselves I would have called them sisters,"

Charlie shook his head, but I heard his heart pick up "I've never seen girls like that," he whispered.

"Are you sure?"

He nodded, but he didn't look entirely certain.

"Well, okay," I sighed "But if you ever see one of them you'll tell us right? If we find them, we're one step closer to finding Bella,"

"I promise I'll tell you,"

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><p>Bella's Point of View:<p>

"Well then," Charlie pulled himself into a sitting position, his smile widening "Welcome to the crazy, screwed up Swan family,"

I laughed and Brenna's smile widened even more "Thank you, Mr. Swan,"

"None of that Mr. Swan stuff," he reprimanded "You're part of the family now so you'll call me Charlie,"

"Thank you, Charlie," Brenna corrected herself.

"You see, that's much better,"

For the rest of the night, Brenna, Charlie, and I sat around his bed, talking about nearly everything, the only things we avoided speaking of was Brenna and my time in captivity, and Charlie's condition. We were so caught up in our conversation we failed to notice the sun rise, or even the slow passing of the morning. But we finally broke out of our comfortable chatting when Brenna and I heard the soft sound of approaching footsteps and the squeak of a wheelchair rolling across the floor, then `the smell of wet dog hit us.

"Oh shit," Brenna and I said in unison.

"What is it?" Charlie asked worriedly.

"Jacob is coming," I muttered "We have to go,"

"But wait, I thought no one but you could see me,"

I nodded my head "No one can, but I don't think I can see him. Jake was my best friend. We'll be back once he's gone, I promise," I swooped down and kissed Charlie's cheek "See you later, Dad,"

Brenna's illusion fell over me just as the door opened and Billy and Jacob came into the room, just before they closed the door behind them, we slipped from the room.

"Are you thirsty?" I asked in concern when Brenna dropped the shield "Do we need to go hunting?"

She shook her head "No, I'm not thirsty yet, but it's making me thirsty. I don't want to risk it,"

"Okay-" I cut off when, for the second time that day, I heard the sound of footsteps coming our way, but this time the steps were coming from both directions.

"Dammit we're not supposed to be here," I hissed "We don't have visitor bracelets, they'll know we didn't sign in,"

Brenna grabbed my hand and dragged me into the closest room, T-30, six rooms away from Charlie.

"Did they see us?" Brenna murmured looking between the crack in the door.

"More importantly," I said "are they coming in here?"

"They won't come in here," I croaky voice said prompting Brenna and me to turn on our heels

Lying on the bed, directly across from us was a young man, eighteen, maybe nineteen, years old. He was handsome, with straight dark hair, perfectly bronzed skin, and a nice, if not slightly shy, smile, although he did look slightly battered with the several bruises scattering his face and the bandages wrapped from his wrists to his shoulders "I never get any visitors here and I requested that the doctor's leave me to my own devices 'till after six, unless, of course, there's an emergency," he studied us intently "So I guess you can understand," he continued "why I'm so surprised to see two very beautiful girls standing in my bedroom, when I have another," he paused to check his bedside clock "ten hours 'till my doctor comes to visit me,"

"We're sorry for busting in-" Brenna said.

"-but we're not really _supposed _to be here," I continued for her.

"You see when you check into the hospital they give you a bracelet to prove that you're an authorized visitor and not some terrorist here to blow up the hospital,"

We both held up our bracelet-less wrists.

"Unfortunately, we didn't check in," I said smiling sheepishly.

"-we didn't feel like waiting for visiting hours to see a friend-"

"-so we snuck in to see him-"

"- but we ran into a nurse on our way back and thus ended up here," Brenna concluded.

The man looked at us in bemusement for several seconds, then a slow amused smile spread across his face "Twin sisters?" he asked.

"Not biologically," I grinned "but we're close enough to be,"

"And we do look alike," Brenna added.

"I'm Bella," I introduced myself.

"And I'm Brenna," Brenna said.

"Rhys," he grinned.

"So Rhys," I asked, walking over to his bedside "are you going to call the nurses on us?"

"Of course not," he smirked "I'm lonely and sure as hell won't rat on the first visitors I've had in months,"

"Why?" Brenna asked, pulling up a seat "Don't you have any family to visit you?"

"My family's kind of screwed up," Rhys sighed "My father's dead, my mother's a crackhead, and my stepdad likes to treat me as his personal punching bag. Two weeks ago I ran away, but my stepdad followed me and put me here, in this here hospital. And also paralyzing me from the waist down, for the rest of my life,"

"Did they catch him?" Brenna asked, her eyes wide "Is he in jail now?"

Rhys shook his head "He got away, no one even found me for about three days. That's why I'm still here, by the time I got to the hospital I was already half dead from blood loss. But enough about me, what about you guys. What are two pretty girls like you doing in the intensive care unit?"

"My Dad," I said "he was in a car accident and is in pretty bad shape,"

"But he'll be okay right?" Rhys asked in concern.

I shook my head "He doesn't have much time left," I said sadly, Brenna took my hand comfortingly "A few days at the most,"

"But we're going to be there for him until the very end," Brenna said "He'll depart this world knowing he was truly loved,"

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><p>Over the next few days Brenna and I spent the majority of our time with Charlie, attempting to make his last few days the best, during that time Brenna became closer to Charlie, in her eyes he was the father she never had, and to him she was his second (and, when we played Poker, favorite) daughter. And during the time Jacob and Billy visited Brenna and I visited Rhys in his room getting to know him and skillfully evading any questions pertaining to our personal lives, and in that short time Rhys replaced Emmett as my ideal brother. He was so sweet and kind, while also being incredibly funny, and a wonderful person to be around all together. But I noticed that Brenna's liking for Rhys beyond the familial affection, she seemed absolutely taken with Brenna, and it was obvious the feelings were reciprocated, I just needed to find a way to get them together. My sister needed happiness after the hell she had been through, and if Rhys was what brought on that happiness then I'd be damned if something were to keep them apart.<p>

However my plans to play matchmaker were put on hold when, on March 1st, Charlie took a turn for the worse. His health had been steadily declining over the week, but on that day, when I walked in the room, I knew. Charlie wasn't going to make it through the day.

His face was ashen gray, and his eyes were a bloodshot red, he was coughing into a tissue, and when he pulled it away it was spattered with blood.

"Dad?" I asked worriedly, sitting in my usual chair beside him "Are you okay?"

I knew that he wasn't and that that had been a stupid question, but what else was I supposed to ask my dying father?

He shook his head "No, Bells," his voice was weak and hoarse "I think that this is it, my final hour,"

"But you can't die," Brenna gasped, her voice trembling "we need you,"

Charlie reached out and took both of our hands in his "You don't need me anymore," he rasped "you have each other,"

"No," I shook my head vigorously "we do need you, we need our dad. You can't die, I won't let you,"

Charlie chuckled faintly "There's nothing you can do about it, Bells,"

I exchanged a glance with Brenna for a brief second "Yes, I can. Dad, I can make you immortal, I can make you like one of us. You'll never have to die,"

My father studied me intently for several long seconds, before turning to deliberate Brenna as well. Finally, he shook his head "I can't," my heart fell to my stomach "It's my time to go, and it would be wrong and unnatural for me not to,"

Brenna and I crawled onto the bed next to Charlie, and snuggled up beside him trying valiantly, and fro the most part succeeding, to remain calm for Charlie. And that was how we sat for nearly an hour, when suddenly, Charlie went rigid, and his breath became labored.

"Daddy?" I cried panicked "No, no, please no,"

Charlies chocolate brown eyes locked with my silver "This is my choice, Bella, Brenna. I'm ready for this,"

And so on March 1st just as the son rose Charlie Swan closed his eyes, and peacefully died, with a smile on his face.

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><p><strong>AN: I feel horrible about killing off Charlie, but it was the only thing I could do, but don't worry, after the next chapter things will get happier.**


	8. Chapter Seven: Breathtaking

**A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update, but I've been kind of busy as of late, but don't worry, I'm not going to neglect you guys. Anyway, warning: this chapter is somewhat angsty as it is has only been a few days since Charlie's death, but unless you cry like _really_ easy, and I mean like you'll cry if you accidently squash a bug easy, it won't be terribly bad.**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I think that disclaimers are published authors way of rubbing it on our faces that they actually sold a book, and all I can do is sit at home and rewrite it in some god-awful, completely uncanon way. So long story short, I don't own Twilight.<strong>

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><p><em>A death is not the extinguishing of a light, but the putting out of the lamp because the dawn has come.<em>

_-Rabindranath Tagore_

Three days later, on a rainy Forks afternoon, in the Fork's cemetery, bordering the thick Olympic forest, Charlie Swan was finally laid to rest. Nearly every resident of Forks had arrived, among them were, the majority of the police force (the few who weren't in attendance were absent only because somebody had to stay at the station), most, if not all, of my school friends, the Quileute werewolves, and, to my great chagrin, the Cullen's. All were dressed in black clothing, sporting identical morose faces, and assuming similar defeated postures, though some were clearly forced.

It had taken me a great amount of willpower, and endless amounts of coaxing from Brenna to even consider showing up, I never should have allowed her to persuade me. I couldn't stand the way everyone was watching us as we attempted to find somewhere to sit, the residents of Forks were gaping with wide eyed, open mouthed awe, the Cullen's were eyeing us like lab experiments, something to be laid out and cut open, exposing our every secret, the only stares I _could_ stand, were coming from the Quileutes, who were glancing over occasionally, rather than incessantly watching us, their gazes full of curiosity and a hint of hope.

"Why did we have to come here, Bren?" I muttered so low not even the Cullens or werewolves would be able to hear us.

"Because, Sissy," she said patiently as she led me to two open seats located in the middle of the crowd "Charlie is dead, and we need closure. Why don't you care to see your father laid to rest?

I looked at her, my head tilted in contemplation of her words "It isn't that I don't care," I explained "but after losing Renee, Phil, _and _Charlie I've come to that watching your loved ones being buried underneath six feets worth of dirt and bugs does nothing to ease your grief. There is no closure, if someone close to you dies you'll grieve the death, and nothing anyone says or does can erase the pain completely. It's a fact of life,"

"When did you get so _old_," Brenna asked, studying me keenly.

"Someone has to be the adult of the two of us, and it sure as hell isn't going to be you,"

The ascension of a silver haired, dwarf of a man onto the dais holding Charlie's closed mahogony coffin stopped Brenna from commenting.

"Today," the man said, with no preamble "we are gathered here to mourn a great loss. The death of one Charlie Swan..." after those first few words the rest of the euology passed in a haze, of later asked, I would not be able to recall anything said other than the man's first words and his last "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, earth to earth. From dust we have arisen, and so to dust we shall return,"

Some people stood to speak of happier times they had had with Charlie, a song was sang, Charlie was lowered into the ground, and it was all over.

For several minutes Brenna and I remained seated as slowly people rose to leave, having no one to pay their condolences to. I was numb, and for that I was glad. If I were to suddenly be able to feel again everything would go to hell, I had lost my mother, my stepfather, _and_my father. Yes, if I was suddenly to feel again it would be a disaster. And I couldn't do that to my baby sister, she needed to be strong.

Taking a deep breath, I stood and with Brenna's hand held firmly in mine I stood and melted into the shadows.

I could feel rather than hear the Cullens and the werewolves falling, and I knew Brenna did too. But we didn't care, we continued to move, hellbent on getting as far away from the cemetery as possible. We probably woul have just kept on going, straight from Forks, if it wasn;t for the seven vampires suddenly surrounding us.

"Wait," Carlisle said "just wait we need to talk to you,"

"The last time you attempted to speak to us we were attacked by your coven members," I said coldly, effortlessly pushing Emmett from our path "So thank you, but no thank you Carlisle Cullen. Good day Cullen's,"

As Emmett regained his balance Brenna and I walked past the seven, and skillfully climbed up an nearby oak, perching ourselves on the lowest branches. There was no way we would be able to outrun both the Cullen's on the werewolves, so we settled for just getting as comfortable as possible while we waited for them to get bored of us.

Brenna stretched her body out to her full length and laid her head into my lap. I closed my eyes as I stroked her hair, this must be just as bad for her, as it was for me. Brenna had grown up with no one as a proper father figure, then she meets Charlie who accepted her as his second daughter, but not even a few weeks later he was dead.

"You were close to him?" a soft voice said from beneath us, startling me from my thoughts "Weren't you?"

"Charlie was like a father to us," Brenna told Jacob, her voice so depressingly sad my heart broke even more.

"Is that why you visited him in the hospital?"

I nodded, my eyes still closed.

"We weren't as close to Charlie as you two obviously were, but we can understand what it feels like to lose someone we love. Bella was like a sister to us, all we want is to know what happened to her,"

It took a second for me to truly hear what he had said, and all the emotions behind it, but when I did, all I could here was the desperation, the despair, and the undying hope. And that above all helped me make a decision.

"The night of the accident, Bella was taken by the redhead, Victoria," there were gasps of horror from below, but I kept going "she took her to a secluded cabin deep in these very woods, and she tortured her,"

"Tortured _us_," Brenna said softly.

"You were there as well?" Sam asked.

"Yes," I continued "we were there when she was brought in, and we were there for the next two months, caring for each other whenever Victoria gave us a reprive to eat or just rest, slowly, we forged a bond stronger than even one of sisterhood, we knew everything about each other, there were no secrets, no lies, nothing to hide. And then one day after our daily torture session with Victoria Bella lay in our dark little cellar, and told us that we wouldn't be with Victoria for much longer, she told us that the Cullen's were here, that they were looking for her, and that it wouldn't be long until you found us," slowly, I opened my eyes staring at the Cullen's with solid, silver eyes "For the first time in weeks we finally felt hope," I scoffed "We should have known better, you never showed up, and two weeks later Brena was on the brink of _insanity_ and I was half dead. Victoria no longer saw Brenna as useful so she took her into the forest and tried to drain her," I shot the Quileutes a grateful glance "but the spirit wolves drove her off,"

"That was you?" Jared gasped.

"Yes, that was her," I whispered "You saved her life, and for that I am forever indebted to you. She managed to crawl away, but her blood was full of venom, and so she was changed.

"While Brenna was changing Victoria managed to elude you and came back to the cabin, she knew the game was up, she had to get rid of us. But she didn't kill us, she did something much, much worse,"

"She bit you?" Esme whispered?

"And Bella,"

"Well then where is she?" Edward snarled "Where have you been hiding her?"

"She's dead," Brenna snapped "Bella didn't survive the change, after months of endless torture it was too much for her,"

Edward roared in rage and lunged at her pushing her from the tree, and pinning her to the ground "Where's her body? Where's the proof?" he yelled shaking her violently "Tell me you bitch," and then he slapped her.

Before he could raise his hand to strike her again I was on top of him, snarling like the devil.

"How dare you touch my sister!" I pulled him from her and threw him into a tree, snapping it in half "Do you have no shame," I went over to where he lay dazed in a pile of shattered wood and fallen leaves and lifted him by the neck "If you ever lay even a finger on her again I won't hesitate to kill you," I released him, and he fell in a heap onto the ground, glaring murderously up at me, but I paid no heed to him as I went over to Brenna's side "Are you okay, Beany?" I whispered examining her face.

She giggled, I had rarely called her by that nickname, as she found it highly amusing.

"I'm fine, Sissy," she assured me "he hits like a girl,"

"And he will be if he hurts you again," I said threateningly, and watched with some satisfaction when he paled and covered his bits with his hands.

Brenna laughed delightedly, and I couldn't help but smile at the sweet sound, her mirth was infectious. Unfortunately, our joy died the moment we saw the Quileutes, all standing pale faced and devastated.

Brenna and I exchanged a quick glance it was time to take our leave "Spirit Warriors," I murmured, inclining my head to the pack "Cullen's" my tone was suddenly disdainful "We must be going,"

Brenna and I pushed our way through the mass of stunned looking Cullen's, but as we passed the Quileutes we stopped, and turned sorrowful eyes upon them"You can shed tears that she is gone," I murmured "or you can smile because she has lived. You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back, or you can open your eyes and see all she's left. Your heart can be empty because you can't see her, or you can be full of the love you shared. You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday, or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday. You can remember only that she is gone, or you can cherish her memory and let it live can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back. Or you can do what she'd want:  
>smile, open your eyes, love and go on,"<p>

"David Harkins," Jacob whispered "One of Bella's favorite poets,"

I smiled "Bella is only truly dead when she is forgotten,"

Brenna and I continued walking, hand in hand to the edge of the forest. This time I could feel only a single person following us, but I knew exactly who it was, and that they had not come to hurt us. So I ignored them, choosing instead to exit the forest, back into the graveyard, walk over to the mound of freshly dug up dirt, and place my hand on Charlie's tombstone.

It was actually very pretty, a shining white slab of marble with a simple inscription engraved upon it just below his name, date of birth and death.

_Life is not measured, by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away_.

"It's quite a nice saying don't you think?" someone asked from behind "That would be something I would have liked to have on my headstone. If I were to ever die that is,"

Brenna and I turned to watch as Victoria ghosted across the grass, slowly coming closer to us.

I sighed, by this time everyone was gone, there was no way we would be able to escape from her.

"The last of the Swan family is dead," she grinned "my work here is done. But I didn't come to gloat," she paused, then cackled maniacally "Okay, maybe I did, just a _little_, but I also came to see how my little monsters are," she eyed Brenna "Though I did hope you wouldn't be here, I knew you would. I didn't get to drain you completely that day," she reached out and stroked my cheek "You look lovely. All of your wounds have healed,"

Resisting the urge to tear her arm from it's socket, I reached up and moved her hand to my temple "Not all of them," I whispered.

Victoria's hand fell limply to her side "You almost make me regret what I did to you," she looked at me curiously "What and odd little thing you are, but nothing less than I expected. In fact you are so much more,"

"What did you expect of me, Victoria?"

The redhead grinned "The gates of hell are opening," then in a flash she was gone.

Hissing in frustration, I stepped forward, preparing to chase after, but Brenna grabbed my arm.

"Wait," she whispered "Something's not right,"

"That was Victoria," I exclaimed "Of course something's not right,"

"No," she shook her head "Something more, don't you feel it?"

I stopped moving, for several seconds I stood there waiting. And then I felt it, a heavy oppressive presence surrounded me. Something powerful was close. Something _evil_.

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><p><strong>AN: Yeah, I know, not my longest chapter, but I felt so bad for not uodating in like two weeks so I put this up for you. The next one, I promise will be 15+ pages. Scouts honor.**

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><p><strong>Review Response:<strong>

**camieangel: ****The name Brenna seems familiar to me. Was she in the Saga? Or did you just make her up?**

_**Me: I actually just made her up, I've always kind of liked the name so I decided to christen Bella's new sister Brenna. Although in the end of Eclipse their was a newborn named Bree. Maybe that's who the name reminds you of.**_


	9. Chapter Eight:To Choose or Not to Choose

**A/N: And here is Chapter Nine for your enjoyment**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: If I owned Twilight Bella would be kick-ass, Alec would be her mate, and Edward would be gay. So needless to say, I don't own Twilight.<strong>

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><p><em>If you were given only one choice: To choose or not to choose, which would you choose?<em>

_-Unknown_

I shuddered at the feeling, at the unnatural coldness it brought, chilling me to my very bones.

"What do you think it is?" Brenna asked scanning our surroundings intently.

"I don't know," I murmured "but I plan to find out. Come on, let's get back to the hospital,"

Brenna began to run, but I grabbed her hand stopping her "Slowly, though," I told her "I need to talk to you about something,"

She nodded, and together we broke into a slow run, well at least a slow run for us to any human we'd be nothing but a blur.

"So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?" she asked after several minutes of companionable silence.

"What are your feelings for Rhys?"

She stumbled at the blunt question, before quickly regaining her composure "I don't know what you mean, I've only known Rhys for a little over a week,"

"Yes, I know, but I see how you act arround him, you'r attracted to him, and he is attracted to you,"

Brenna looked at me her eyes wide in surprise "He's attracted to me?" she asked "How do you know?"

I laughed "How do you not? He looks at you as if your the most precious thing in the world, he obviously has deep feelings for you,"

"Why do you want to know so badly?"

"Because," I sighed, and ran a hand through my hair "I think it's time we left Forks, and I want to know if you feel strongly enough for him to bring him with us, and maybe one day change him,"

Brenna stopped running, catching me by surprise. I had already ran a hundred yards before I realized she was no longer with me.

"So what do you plan to do?" I asked, upon reaching her side again.

"I really like him," she said softly "So can we tell him about us? About what we are? And let him make the choice?"

I nodded "If this is what you think is best, and if he does something stupid, we can always make him believe we were nothing more than figments of his imagination,"

Brenna smiled, and began running again "I don't think he'll do something stupid. Either he'll believe us and come, or he won't but will still keep it quiet. I know we only just met him, but I feel as if I can trust him,"

"I hope we can,"

We spent the rest of the run in silence, pondering what were about to do. We were about to tell a man we'd only just met one of our deepest secrets, if it had just been me, I would never do such a thing, but I had Brenna, and she seemed to have a knack for judging character. Iwould trust her decision, and hope things wouldn't go to hell because of it.

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><p>When reaching the hospital we had to wait some time before being able to sneak up to Rhys' room as the whole hospital seemed to be in pure chaos. Nurses and doctors were running all over the place and there was a good chance that if Brenna and I were to attempt to sneak through the halls invisible someone would collide into us.<p>

So we waited for the pandemonium to calm down some before, under Brenna's illusion, flitting up to the T-Ward, but just as luck would have it it seemed as if this was the ward the cause of all of the mess was located.

I felt a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach when I noticed wich room the nurses and doctors were jammed into, working hard to save someones life. T-30, Rhys' room. I dragged Brenna into the room, and we almost immediately had to press ourselves against the walls as the room was incredibly full of harried doctors, and weary looking nurses, all bent over Rhys's.

Brenna choked back a tearless sob when she saw the form on the bed, a bloody, battered Rhys lay spread eagle across the blood stained sheets. From where we stood we could see he had several broken bones and compound fractures, strangulation marks on his throat, and dark purple bruises all across his face. But worst of all were the two deep lacerations across his chest, someone had cut him viciously with a knife.

"He's fading fast," one nurse said "We won't be able to save him,"

Brenna made a small sound, reminiscent of a wounded animal "Sissy he's dying," she choked.

I shook my head "Not if we can help him. Kill him,"

Brenna looked at me aghast "_What_?"

"We won't be able to get to him unless they believe he's dead,"

Understanding dawned in her eyes, before she closed them in concentration. The erratic beeps coming from the heart rate monitor began to slow.

"EKG declining," a doctor shouted "We're losing him," the monitor flatlined.

"Grab him, they won't feel you if you brush against them, but be careful," Brenna murmured to me as the various doctors and nurse attempted to resuscitate him

Quickly, I weaved my way through the crowd, being careful not to do anything more than brush against anybody. When I reached Rhy's bedside I carefully lifted him up, the moment I touched him he joined me under Brenna's notice-me-not illusion, leaving behind the substantial illusion of his dead body.

Ten minutes later Brenna, Rhys, and I were in the forest, perched at the very top of the tallest oak we could find.

"What are we going to do now?" Brenna asked, frantically attempting to staunch the blood flowing from his chest.

"It's your choice now," I said "Are we going to change him, or are we going to let him die? We never got to ask him so it's up to you to decide,"

"Either way he'll lose his life,"

I nodded "I know, Beany, but which one will he lose?"

"I can't do it, Sissy,"

"And why not?"

"Because," she sobbed "I think I'm falling in love with him,"

"So do it," I said gently "If you truly feel something for him bite him, he may no longer be human, but we will not let him become a monster,"

Brenna looked at me, a new determination in her eyes "If I lose control," she whispered "do whatever it takes to stop me,"

I kissed her cheek "You won't,"

She smiled at me gratefully.

"Do it on his neck," I instructed "right above the pulse point,"

Taking a deep breath, Brenna bent over Rhys' vulnerable form, and allowed her teeth to sink into his neck, injecting venom into the vein leading directly into his heart.

* * *

><p>For the next two days Brenna and I took turns watching over Rhys as, silently, his humanity drained away from him with each pounding heart beat. As luck would have it he finally woke up from the transformation when neither Brenna and I were there. Actually we were only about a few hundred feet away when he woke up, but he was unaware of our presence and promptly fell eight hundred feet from the tree.<p>

Brenna and I were immediately by his side.

"Rhys!" Brenna cried "You're awake,"

"I-I," he lay on the ground, not attempting to move "Where am I? What happened?"

"You're in the forest," I explained "As for what happened, we were hoping you would know,"

"Don't you remember anything?" Brenna coaxed.

He sat in silence for several moments, contemplating "I kind of do, but now, my memories seem fuzzy, like I've been looking through a warped glass my entire life, and now I'm seeing clearly. But I do remember what happened," he took a deep breath "Abner found me," Brenna and I gasped.

"That makes so much sense now," I breathed. Stefan Abner was Rhys' abusive stepfather.

"Yes," Rhys said wearily "He was angry, and drunk, I don't know how the hell he managed to get in. When he saw that I was unable to defend myself he began to beat me, I didn't have time to numb myself so I felt every punch, and I felt when he shanked me. I thought I was going to die, I was bleeding so much I lost consciousness, and then I woke up here," he looked at us in bewilderment "and I fell from a tree,"

"Here," Brenna lifted Rhys from the ground "Get out of the dirt,"

He was silent staring first at his legs, then at me, then at Brenna "What did you do to me?" he whispered.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Brenna, I was paralyzed from the waist down, I was never supposed to walk again. My chest was slashed open like a frog on a lab table, I heard what those doctors said, I'm supposed to be _dead_. You did something to me, and I want to know what it is you did,"

Brenna released him "I-I-I," she stammered "I'm so sorry Rhys," she burst into tearless sobs "I had no choice, you were dying, I had no choice, I-I didn't want to lose you,"

Rhys looked bewildered as I wrapped my arms around Brenna.

"Bella what's going on?" he asked, he stepped from the shadows cast by the trees around us, and for the first time, I truly saw him. He, like Brenna and I, was impossibly beautiful, more so than any vammpire I had ever seen. His dark hair was longer, hanging into his eyes with a grace not many men could accomplish, and was more angular, almost cat like.

"She had to make a choice," I told him "You were dying so she had to decide whether you were going to lose your life or your humanity. She chose your humanity,"

"I-I don't understand,"

"Rhys, your not human anymore," Brenna said, her face buried in my shoulder.

"Then what I am I?"

I laughed grimly "You're one of us now,"

"Bella," he pleaded "all I want is a straight answer. _What am I_,"

"A vampire,"

Rhys sagged against the same tree he had just fallen out of, and brushed his hair out of his eyes. I cocked my head to the side, curiously. His eyes were silver.

"Are you serious, Bella?"

I nodded "As a heart attack,"

"I-I-I can't- I don't know what to think,"

Brenna pulled away from me, brushing her hair from her eyes "I'm sorry, Rhys," she sighed "This is all my fault,"

"No!" he cried "No, don't say that. Because of you I'm still alive,"

"No you're not," she said "Your heart no longer beats, you no longer have blood in your veins, hold your breath and you'll see, you no longer have to breath. You're a _vampire_. One of the living dead, you're cursed for the rest of forever,"

"Forever seems like quite an ovestatement,"

"But it's not," Brenna shook her head "Vampires are immortal, the only way we can die is if someone tears us apart and sets fire to the pieces,"

Rhys slowly lowered himself to the ground, his eyes focused intently on us "What else is there for me to know?"

"Well," I said, sitting down across from him, and pulling Brenna down beside me "For one, you're incredibly well behaved for a newborn,"

"A newborn?" he asked.

"A newborn is a vampire a newly created vampire. Normally, newborns have no control over themselves, all they can focus on is blood, their driven by their lust,"

"About that," Rhys cut in "I don't think I'll survive long as a vampire, I won't be able to bring myself to kill anyone, let alone drink their blood,"

I laughed "Neither do we, human blood is disgusting to us. Brenna and I drink animals blood, that way we feel about as guilty as we would if we were eating a steak,"

He nodded "Oh, sorry for interrupting, go on,"

For the next hour or so Brenna and I explained everything we knew about vampires from their living habits, to their strengths and abilities, until we had covered everything.

"That's a lot to take in," Rhys sighed.

I noddd "I know, but you're taking it fairly well,"

He shrugged "I guess it's because I feel comfortable around you two, I can trust you guys,"

Brenna hugged him "We feel the same,"

"Beany especially," I muttered under my breath, of course being in the company of vampires, both heard me. Brenna looked mortified, while Rhys looked bewildered.

"So what are we going to do now?" Brenna asked, desperately attempting to change the subject.

Feeling bad for doing something like that to her, I decided to go along with it "We'll follow our previous plan. It won't do to stay here, especially not with the Cullens and werewolves around, mainly the Cullens,"

The two nodded in agreement.

"The question is," Brenna said "where are we to go?"

"I was thinking somewhere in Alaska," I said "That way we don't have to worry about the sun, and we'll have plenty of polar bears to hunt,"

"Polar bears are in Antarctica, Sissy," Brenna corrected me.

"Same difference," I said, waving the error away "But first we need to take Rhys hunting,"

He suddenly looked excited "Where are we going to go to do that?"

"We can hunt here," Brenna laughed at his eager expression "There are plenty of elk here, and maybe, if we're lucky, we'll find a mountain lion or two,"

"Oh, yay," his excitement seemed to decrease suddenly "mountain lions,"

"Hush," I giggled "and come on, I'm thirsty,"

* * *

><p>Pain. Unending, unendurable pain coursed through my veins. I was burning at the stake, bathing in a sea of lime acid, undergoing any painful transformations known to man without any anesthetic to dull, or at least infinitesimally ease the agonizing burning.<p>

But it wasn't real, I knew that much at least. The pain was all in my head, subconscious but still powerful enough to bring a newborn vampire down on her knees. God, somebody please help me. What was wrong with me? What was happening? I'm supposed to be invulnerable to any and all pain, but yet here I am curled on the wet moss of the forest floor, ruining my one-hundred dollar dress as my body was racked with violent, uncontrollable tremors.

I could feel Brenna and Rhys at my side, I could feel as they shook me frantically, I could hear as they begged me to open eyes, to be alright.

I let out a low agonized moan, the pain was slowly killing me, I felt as if I was being burned alive. What the hell was happening to me? One moment I, was tackling an elk, the next my very veins are suddenly filled with something akin to liquid fire, coursing through my body in a sick imitation of the blood that once pumped from my heart.

_ What is happening to me?_

_ You are changing, Isabella._

For a moment I froze, the violent spasms rocking my body stilled for an instant, before starting up again. That voice. I _k__new _that voice. It had been one of my constant companion during the months I'd spent imprisoned in Victoria's little torture chamber. Constantly whispering encouragement to me, constantly begging me not to give up. But after I'd awoken from my transformation and realized it was no longer there I'd concluded that the Voice was simply a figment of my imagination, a delusion brought from the endless hours of torture.

But now it was back, and it was whispering in my ear.

_The pain is merely a test_, it continued _a test to see whether you are worthy of what is to come._

_ What is that supposed to mean?_ I thought furiously. _What is to come?_

_What is to come is what is to come._

I growled angrily, not once in the entire time that the Voice had been plaguing my mind had I _ever _received a straightforward answer from the damned Voice.

Nevertheless, I couldn't help but throw one more question its way.

_And if I'm not worthy?_

_ Then you will become nothing more than a vegetable, so let us hope for both your sake and my own, Little One, that you are indeed worthy._

I was stunned. Not only had I just been given a straightforward answer from the Voice, but it had also included the safety of my sanity.

It would have all been glorious if I had not been still writhing on the dirty forest floor in agony.

_ Your pain is their pain, Little One. Feel it, breathe it, _live it, _for it will soon be their last._

What? Who's pain? Who was the voice talking about?

_Consider what I am about to show you a gift. No, more as an exchange. I have taken everything of your old life from you, so now you can begin anew._

Suddenly, an image filled my mind, an image of a beautiful winters night, with snow covering the ground as far as the eye could see like a thick blanket, hanging in the deep indigo sky was a full moon. With no warning, the peaceful night was disrupted when the earth began to shake, a rift appeared in the ground and from it crawled hundreds of vampires, all with sick, pasty gray skin, and luminescent yellow eyes. It seemed as if they would never stop coming, but eventually they stopped, and only one was left to crawl from the gap in the earth and he had to be the most frightful. His hair was raven black and hung to the small of his back, his skin, like all of the others was an aging gray, his teeth were filed to deadly points and dripped with venom, but instead of two yellow eyes, he only had one glowing eyeball, the other was a a black hole with a large glowing ruby embedded into the socket.

_Devlin_, the name like the image popped, unbidden, into my mind.

_Yes, Little One, _the Voice said, _that was Devlin, one of the worst and most powerful Ad Gang there is. He has been sleeping, but on this coming blue moon he will awaken, and with him an army of Ad Gang. Hell is upon us, and only you can stop it._

_ What do you mean? What is an Ad Gang? And what do you mean only I can stop it?_

_ Go north Little One, _the Voice ordered, _at the point where the horseshoe falls you will find the answers you are seeking._

And then, just as suddenly as it came the pain was gone.

_You have been deemed worthy, use the power you and your broodmates have been given well, for if you don't you will be destroyed and with it, everything and _everyone _else._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So we finally get to see why I named this fanfic Blue Moon: The Awakening and we're finally getting somwhere. Things such as who the voice is, what it meant, and what the Ad Gang are, will be explained in the coming chapters. And also, sorry if this seemed kind of rough, but I wanted to give this to you guys quickly.**

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><p><strong>Review Response:<strong>

**Ilivvisis: When are they going to find out that its bella they've been talking to? I can't wait for that reveal?**

**_Well, I was thinking about revealing who they are pretty soon, I'm not sure how though, or exactly when, but I don't think you'll have to wait too long._**

**__chocolate-eyed-girl: **I** absolutely love this story so far! Are they ever going to tell the Cullens or the wolves who they really are?**

** _Just like I said with Ilivvisis, yes I'll reveal, and within the next few chapters._**


	10. Chapter Nine: The Silver Eyed Ones

**AN: I know I've been starting to become somewhat inconsistent with my updates, okay who am kidding I was _never _consistent, and fort that I apologize, I'm not the most organized person, and as if to make that worse my computer is broken (my little sister dropped it of the top bed on her bunk bed) and my dad told me that it is completely unfixable. Yeah, that laptop was my _life_ so I am currently trying my best not to kill the brat. But enough of my problems and/or excuses, here is Chapter Ten.**

**-_GoldenPhoenix823_**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: Isn't obvious that I don't own fucking Twilight! I mean honestly, this fanfic is nothing, <em>nothing<em>, like Stephanie Meyers' bestselling novel.**

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><p><em>A consistent soul believes in destiny, a capricious one in chance.<br>-Benjamin Disraeli_

_You have been deemed worthy, use the power you and your broodmates have been given well, for if you don't you will be destroyed and with it, everything and _everyone _else._

I shuddered at the gravity of the words, _What do you mean? What power. How will my choices affect everyone and everything?_

_Go to where the horseshoe falls, _the Voice repeated, _There everything you wish to know, and need to know will be answered. But do so quickly, your time is short._

_What horseshoe? _I cried silently, but already I knew I would not receive an answer, my mind was, once again, my own, but not before one more image of the gray skinned, literally ruby-eyed vampire flashed through my mind. A final warning.

As feeling returned to my body, I allowed myself to absorb the mind numbing conversation that had traversed between the Voice and I for only a few seconds before reaching out two hands. Immediately, I came into contact with two stone like figures, my sister and brother, and, gripping onto the front of their shirts, pulled myself to my feet.

"Sissy, are you okay?" Brenna asked, eyeing me warily "What happened?"

"I'm fine," I said softly, shaking out the stiffness in my limbs and carefully observing my surroundings "Come on. Let's go,"

Still holding tightly to Brenna and Rhys, though this time I was clutching their upperarms, I began running through the forest, keeping careful watch for any sharp toothed, yellow eyed monsters.

"Wait, Bella," Rhys cried, attempting to pull his arm from my vice like grip "What happened to you? What's wrong?"

"Later," I snarled, half dragging, half leading my compatriots in the direction of Charlie's old home.

"No, Bella," Brenna pressed "We need answers _now_. What is wrong with you?"

I ignored her, focusing solely on the task of getting my surrogate family to my house, and relative safety, and to my pleasant surprise we burst into my backyard within the next few minutes.

"Get in the house, quickly," I ordered, pushing open the back door, and to my relief the two obliged without question.

"Now will you tell us what the hell is going on?" Brenna asked.

"I'm beginning to understand," I murmured as a response, rifling through the duffle bag full of money that Brenna and I had placed under the kitchen sink, after buying the clothing and other material goods we had needed.

"Understand what, exactly," I could clearly hear the exasperation in her tone.

"Everything," seeing that we had enough money to do what I had planned, I darted up the stairs to my bedroom and sat in front of my computer, impatiently booting it up "Every bad thing that has ever happened to us, every numbing blow, every cruel word, every crushed spirit, was for a _purpose_,"

"And what was that purpose?" Rhys inquired.

"To prepare us," I whispered, pulling up Google and typing out the words _horseshoe falls._ Immediately nearly two-million hits on just those two words came up, the majority of them being about The Canadian Falls also known as the Horseshoe Falls, a section of the famous Niagara Falls, located between New York, America and Ontario, Canada, northeast of our current location, but north nonetheless.

"For god's sake, Bella," Brenna cried in frustration "Will you please give us a straight answer. Tell us what happened to you and what the hell is going on!"

After memorizing the exact location of the falls and the way to get there, I pulled Google back up and pulled up a calendar for the coming Blue Moons. The next one was August 31st, only about seven months away. Seven months was not enough time.

Cursing, I shut down the computer and turned my chair to face my two irate siblings.

"Listen to me," I said "when I, for lack of a better term, passed out, someone or something spoke to me,"

"What-" Brenna began a look of deep contemplation on her face, but I quickly hushed her.

"When we were imprisoned in La Chambre de Torture a voice spoke to me, encouraging me to stay alive, that my time on earth was _far_ from over. I passed it off as a delusion, a hallucination brought on by the rigorous amounts of torture Victoria put us through each day, but I listened to it anyway, I knew that what it said held a grain of truth, and that if it was truly real it would, one day, explain to me what I was meant for.

"And it did. Not even half an hour ago, when I passed out in terrible agony, it spoke to me again. And it told me and showed me some terrible, but necessary things.

"The first thing was the pain. When I passed out I felt as if liquid fire was burning me from the inside out, it was a million times worse than any pain Victoria could ever inflict on me. The Voice told me it was a test, to see whether I was worthy or not,"

"Worthy of what?" Brenna queried.

"Of what is to come," I said, repeating the Voice's answer "The next thing I received was a vision, of hundreds, maybe thousands of gray skinned, yellow eyed vampires pouring from a fission in the ground under a full moon. The last one to come from the earth had the gray skin and yellow eyes of all the others, but his teeth were pointed and instead of two eyes, one eye had been replaced by a large, blood red ruby. It was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen, and what the Voice told me after the vision was worse.

"Apparently those vampires are known as the Ad Gang and the ruby eyed one was Devlin, the most fearsome of all of the Ad Gang. Devlin and his army are…sleeping at the moment, but they will awaken on the next blue moon, and will lay waste to the world. The Voice said that only I-_we_ can stop the world from going to hell,"

"Well," Brenna said shrilly "No pressure there,"

The slightly sarcastic, overly hysteric statement broke the tense mood, and Rhys and I laughed at Brenna's expense.

"Glad to see I can amuse you," she scoffed, crossing her arms "Now onto more important matters, what are we supposed to do about all of this?"

I sighed, once again growing serious "The Voice told me that any questions I had would be answered if I went north to where the horseshoe falls,"

"And what does that mean?" Rhys asked.

"It literally means to go to the Horseshoe Falls, one of the Niagara Falls in Canada,"

"And what are we supposed to do there?"

I shrugged "We'll cross that bridge when we get there,"  
>"And how are we going to get to The Niagara Falls?"'<p>

"Your choice, we have enough money to take a bus or we can run,"

"How long would each take?"

I glared at Rhys and his incessant questions but answered him nonetheless "It would take us nearly six days if we were to go by bus, but only about three hours to run,"

"Well I say we run," Brenna said "And start running now,"

I looked at the clock on my bedside table, the time read only two in the afternoon "I think we'd get there in enough time to visit the park,"

"And if not I think we're stealthy enough to sneak in," Brenna grinned.

I sighed and stood and grabbed the bag of money "Well then let's goes, there's no time like the present,"

"This feels so surreal," Brenna said, following me down the stairs "Are we really just going to up and go to New York on a whim?"

"What else are we to do?" I shrugged throwing open the back door "And we have to leave Forks anyway, I'm fairly sure the Cullens won't be to pleased about our changing you Rhys, no matter what the circumstances. So let's go slow poke," I grinned at her before breaking into a run, silently challenging the two to a race. Almost immediately they caught on and, accepting my dare, battled to catch up with me.

"Last one to Goat Island is a Cullen!" I shouted gleefully.

"No fair," Brenna cried "You got a head start and Rhys is only a day old so of course he's faster,"

"Deal with it sweetheart," Rhys answered on my behalf, pecking her on the cheek as he raced past her. He missed the flustered, star struck expression left on her face, but I didn't.

* * *

><p>Three hours and at least four hunting breaks later we reached the Goat Island Bridge, the border between New York. Ignoring said bridge, we dove into the water beneath it and swam lithely to the opposite shore fighting tooth and nail, not to end up a Cullen.<p>

In the end Rhys hit land first, followed almost immediately by Brenna and I, who were swimming so close together we were unable to determine who had crossed last.

"Does this mean we're both Cullens?" Brenna pouted.

"No," I said, "That doesn't count, we're both us,"

"Good, she grinned "Now where are the Niagara Falls? I don't see them anywhere,"

"A twenty minute run north," I explained "At Terrapin Point,"

This time, instead of racing to the falls, we ran side by side, enjoying the scenery from the cover of the trees.

Twenty minutes later we were standing under Brenna's notice me not illusion on the Maid of the Mist tour boat, clad only in swimming suits and carrying one waterproof bag holding over one thousand dollars.

"When we get to Horseshoe Falls," I said, adjusting the bag on my shoulder "Be prepared to jump,"

"Will we _have_ to go into the water?" Brenna asked.

"Only if we see something of importance," I reassured her.

"And we are now passing the Canadian Falls," the tour guide at the front of the boat called out to the drenched passengers "Also known as the Horseshoe Falls due to their slight curvature,"

"Do you see anything?" I asked.

"No," Rhys said "Noth- Wait, yes! There's a girl behind the falls, you can barely see her, but she's there,"

I pressed closer to the side, squinting my eyes, and I saw something, a petite figure, sitting lotus position behind the thick wall of water. If I had been human I would not have been able to see her, but being a vampire my vision was far more superior than even the best humans, and thus I was able to see her.

"Come on," I urged, leaping nimbly onto the rail "It's time for a swim,"

Grinning at the two, I dove into the water, and with our duffle bag full of money secure on my shoulder, swam toward the Canadian Falls and the mysterious girl behind the falls.

* * *

><p>When we swam through the falls, the first thing I saw was the slight indentation in the rock behind the waterfall, about as big as a small cave, enough to fit around half a dozen people. The second thing I saw was the girl. Her hair was a fiery red that hung in thick curls to her elbows, dark, nearly fully black eyes that seemed much older than the age she appeared, which I would have guessed to be around eight. Her skin was just as pale, and she was just as beautiful as Brenna, Rhys, and I.<p>

"Hello," she said, smiling with a child's innocence "Have you come to visit my cave?"

"Yes," I said wringing my hair out "Who are you?"

"My name is Delphi, but I have gone by many other names, such as Pythos, and the Oracle,"

Instead of expressing my disbelief I studied her intently observing the way she held herself, the ancient look in her eyes "Are you the one who can give us answers?"

She grinned and nodded "Yes,"

"Well, then Delphi," I said, lowering himself to the ground "We have plenty of questions for you,"

Her grin grew wider, as if she were delighted by the prospect of questions for her to answer "Ask away then,"

"You want to know why your lives have turned out as such," she said "You want to know why you have had to suffer such horrifying pasts, only to suffer even more. But most of all you want to know where you are to go from here,"

"How do you know?" Rhys asked warily sitting himself beside me and pulling Brenna down beside us.

"I am all knowing, Rhys Kane,"

"Fair enough," he said "So can you give us answers?"

"Yes, I can," she said softly "but you'll have to have a little patience. I need to start at the _very _beginning. As in the times before even before I was even born," Brenna, Rhys, and I waited patiently for her to start "Millions of years ago, your earth was created, whether by science or some divine entity not even _I _know, and with the creation of earth came plants, animals, and, eventually, humans.

"But with the humans came a greater evil, came Vladkinof,"

"No one knows how he was created, or when he came to be, all we know is that Vladkinof was the first of a terrible species, that could be neither contained, nor destroyed. He was the first vampire.

"For nearly twenty millennia he terrorized humans, stealing them from their beds, draining them dry, and leaving their bodies for the families to find, bloody, and so mangled, that at times they were unrecognizable. He acts were ruthless, and his thirst insatiable. Within centuries of his creation he was know worldwide as the Bringer of la Morte. The Bringer of Death.

"Times were hard for the humans, all because of the thirst of a single vampire. Little did they know the worst was yet to come, they had no way of predicting what Vladkinof was to do next,"

"He created more vampires," I asked "didn't he?"

Delphi nodded grimly "Yes, he did. He created thousand of them one by one, teaching them the trades of stealth and set them loose on the world. The world was in chaos, deaths were occuring worldwide, people were panicking. It was not uncommon to find sacrifices, both animal and human, outside of villages, in hopes of keeping the offspring of Vladkinof away,"

"So what happened?" Brenna asked "What changed?"

"Pardon me?" Delphi asked, weaving the flowers closer together.

"The world is no longer like that, humans don't know about vampires. So what changed that?"  
>"The Gift Adgang were the catalysts,"<br>"Gift Adgang?" Brenna queried.

"Venom Drinkers, and their names mean exactly that. As you know vampires need venom, just as much as human drinkers need blood, the more we have, the harder it is for us to be killed. The Gift Adgang drank the venom from vampires and absorbed it into their own, the transfer turned their usually red eyes to a sickly, yellow, their teeth sharpened to all points, and their skin took on a grotesque gray pallor. But despite their appearances the Adgang became infinitely more powerful than normal vampires, and therefore became the top of the food chain.

"Their diets of vampire venom severely reduced the vampire population, but it didn't reduce the amounts of human deaths, in fact it may have increased it. You see, the Adgang needed twice the amount of blood normal vampires needed, due to their unusual diets and heightened strength it burned the blood they consumed at twice the usual rate. So things got worse for both the humans and the human drinkers, and for several more millennia, both were in constant danger from the Adgang.

"But then, like in any good story, when all seemed lost, the heroes arrived. And the heroes of this story are the Sig af Lys, pronounced Sig af Lee. The Sig af Lys, or Harbingers of Light, drank from neither humans nor vampires, they drank from animals, much like you, and, also like you, they were beautiful, far more than any normal vampire, with their silver eyes they seemed almost _pure_. But their looks could be very deceiving. The af Lys had incredible strength, strength to outmatch even the Adgang, they had unparalleled control over their thirst, and above all else _power_.

"While the occasional normal vampire receives a supernatural gift in their second life, every Sig af Lys ever to be created have had extensive powers" Delphi held her hand out to reveal a pure white, tiger lily, conjured from nowhere, lying in the center of her palm. With no warning, the flower ignited in pale, silver flames "We can manipulate the elements," a soft wind suddenly blew through the little cave, putting out the fire, the lily sat in Delphi's hand completely unharmed "And even space itself," the lily vanished "And that is only one of the incredible gifts we had."

"You're an af Lys?" Brenna breathed in awe.

"Delphi nodded "But I was created long after the time of the War of the Adgang and af Lys"

"The War of Adgang and af Lys?"

"I'm getting there. So the af Lys were, without a doubt, superior in strength and power, to the Adgang, they were the only ones who were, not only, capable of going against the venom drinkers, but actually had a chance of winning against said vampires. And what was better was that they _wanted _to go against the monsters. You see the af Lys were vampires of the light, they hated anything to do with killing humans, which was why they drank the blood of animals. So of course the Adgang were their sworn enemies, being the exact opposite of the Harbingers of Light. But the problem of the af Lys was that they were easily outnumbered by the Venom Drinkers ninety to one. You see the af Lys are not normal vampires for a reason, they are humans bitten by the Gift Adgang, but that's not what is so rare, the humans, in their previous lives, must have faced terrible hardships hatred, death, betray, and the likes of such. But such terrible tidings won't twist them to become evil like the Adgang, they must remain pure and selfless when bitten by the Venom Drinkers, lest they turn into nothing more than their creators.

"Needless to say not many like that came along, and what few did were often killed by the very person who changed them when they realized that their creation, or simply meal gone wrong had been changed into their sworn enemy, there were very few af Lys, but they were strong, united species and were not easily defeated. For the first few decades after the first of their kind was created, the af Lys were able to one by one pick of the Adgang without being seen or ambushed, with their superior strength they were easily able to subdue their opponents. But their luck ran out near the one hundred and ninety year mark when a small group of af Lys intercepted a dozen Adgang attacking two newborn human drinkers. It was an ambush. The af Lys managed to destroy three of the twelve before reinforcements came for the Adgang and began pulverizing the group of six Harbingers of Light to grease spots on the ground. One af Lys managed to escape the fight to go and alert his brethren, the Adgang allowed him to go, and had three of their spies follow the vampire to the, until then, hidden home of the af Lys. This discovery proved fatal for the af Lys, for, when they least expected it, the Gift Adgang invaded the forest in which they lived, setting it alight and one-by-one picking off any who tried to escape. It was a devastating day for the af Lys, every Venom Drinker in existence had assembled to watch as their sworn enemies were systematically dispatched.

"The leader of the af Lys and no doubt the most powerful Harbinger of Light, Selena, realized that that day would be the breaking point for their world, if she did not do something, if the Gift Adgang managed to kill off her race and still thrive it would mean the end of the world as all knew it, for it was the af Lys who had kept the balance over the decades. So in one last attempt to rid the world of the Venom Drinkers she gathered all of her power and released it upon the world, killing herself and every Sig af Lys in existence, but also killing every last one of the Gift Adgang. All but one. Devlin of the Adgang survived, like Selena he was the strongest, most powerful of the Adgang, but as a reaction to Selena's energy explosion he was put to sleep and over time became buried in the rubble of the once great home of the Sig af Lys.

"Over time he has stirred and when he has nothing good has come of it, natural disasters, famine, disease have broken out, and also, in one case he created another Gift Adgang. Just one. That Adgang was the one to create me, when she saw what he had done she tried to kill me, but I was already too powerful, although not powerful enough. She got away.

"Over the millennia she remained quiet, killing a vampire here, and killing another there, but always before I could find her. She is a master of deception, she has the ability to change the color of her skin to that of the pale human drinkers, her eyes tot heir blood-red, and her teeth to some semblance of normalcy, thus making it that much harder to find her. But find her I did, I managed to track her down, not even a few days before you arrived and dispose of her as she fled America. At that time I didn't realize that she had bitten two humans and left them to their own devices, I only realized such when I returned here and had a vision of the two. And what I saw shocked me beyond belief. Two Sig af Lys far more powerful than even Selena herself were once again roaming the earth. And what was more they had created another and were now coming to me, for answers,"

Suddenly I straightened "Wait a minute?" I said "Are you trying to tell me that Brenna, Rhys, and I are the now, nearly extinct Sig af Lys?"

"Yes,"

"Victoria was the Adgang who changed you?"

"Yes," Delphi sighed, suddenly looking twice her age, or the age she appeared to be "You came here searching for answers, you came here in hope of learning your future, and I will not disappoint you, but be warned, it is not as wonderful as you wish it to be.

"The death of Victoria had far greater consequences than I could have ever expected. In killing her I inadvertently awoke Devlin,"

"You what?" Brenna gasped.

"He is not fully conscious yet, but in time he will be. And as he awakens Adgang will be reborn, even as we speak Venom Drinkers are stalking the land, hunting both mortals and immortals alike. Only the three remaining af Lys will be able to stop him,"  
>"Us?" I asked solemnly.<p>

Delphi nodded "Yes, you are the last surviving Arianna 'n Llygadog Hunau, Silver Eyed Ones. Only you will be able to stop Devlin from turning this world into the worst of hells,"

"But why us?" Rhys asked "Your an af Lys as well, and no doubt much stronger than us,"

Delphi sighed, "I cannot help you," she whispered "My time has come, my time to pass into the void. Despite my young looks, I am old, so old. My bones creak and groan with the strain, I'm ready. And as for power, you are infinitely more powerful than I, infinitely more powerful than the first Sig af Lys, Selena,"

"But we don't know how to use this power," I said on hopes of swaying her from death "You've had centuries, millenia even, to hone your power, we only just found out about ours in this last half hour. From what you've told us it sounds like this Devlin is rising too fast and too strong, we won't have time to figure out this acclaimed power,"

"You don't think I'd leave you defenseless?" Delphi chuckled "I am not cruel. When I pass all of my memories, my past experiences, mistakes made, and lessons learned will go onto you,"

"But what are we supposed to do?" Brenna begged "How are we, Bella, Rhys, and I three newborn af Lys, supposed to take on a group of venom thirsty monsters _and _their leader, who, I might add, is the most powerful of the Gift Adgang,"

"You won't be alone, Brennamine Castelliana. There are six more like you, Silver Eyed Ones, or six more who will become like you. Two will be changed tomorrow, three two days from now, and the last two in seven days. All will be situated in the north, as that is where Devlin slumbers and where his Adgang were created,"

"But where in the north?" I queried "Where exactly does Devlin lie?"

"I believe you humans refer to his resting place as the Arctic Circle ,"

_"The Arctic Circle _?"

Delphi nodded "The fall of the Venom Drinkers and Silver Eyes was long before what is today known as Pangea. the Arctic Circle was once a fertile forest, with trees taller than your tallest skyscrapers and grass as green and soft as emerald down. That was where the af Lys resided, and that was where they and their mortal enemies fell. The release of Selena's power rent the earth apart and the land drifted their separate ways, creating today's seven continents.

"The af Lys you will search for will be in northern America as that is one of the closest human inhabited land masses to the Arctic Circle,"

"Do you have to die?" I tried again "We need you, yes we'll have your memories, but it won't be the same,"

"You'll be fine, young ones," Delphi said "Now come, it is time for me to pass on all I know, and then embark on life's greatest journey, _death_,"

"What do we need to do?" Brenna sighed wearily.

"Hold out your hands," as we obliged, Delphi slit them with her teeth, before doing the same to her own, venom welled to the surface of her skin "My venom will bleed into you, and with it my memories. When it is all gone I will be no more,"

I nodded, I'd only known Delphi for no more than thirty minutes, but I felt saddened at her death and Delphi seemed to see that.

"Do not be sad Isabella," Delphi whispered, as her venom mixed with Brenna and my own "this is what I want. In several millenia, you too will see what it is like to look back on your life and barely be able to remember your own beginning, and then to look forward only to see that you have many, many more centuries in your future. After such a long existence, death is nothing,"

Slowly, I exhaled "Yes, maybe I will, one day, see things as you do,"

A peaceful smile settled across the millennia old oracle's face "You will do well against Devlin," she whispered faintly "that I can see,"

And so the Oracle Delphi passed into the void, body and all, leaving an abundant patch of white tiger lilies in the hard rock behind the roaring Horseshoe Falls.

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><p><strong>AN: Finally! Finally! Finally! I have caught up to where I stopped the original Blue Moon, from now on the story will be coming straight from my mind to the screen of my (or rather my dad's) laptop. Rejoice!**


	11. Chapter Ten: Extraction

**A/N: Yeah, I know I said I was going to update every other Sunday only to update on a Wednesday, but without my laptop it's incredibly difficult to update on the exact day, but I solemnly swear that I will be sure that, if I can't update Sunday, it will be within the three days, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, following, and that I will never abandon you.**

_**-GoldenPhoenix823**_

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: Oh, the woe. I can claim no ownership to any of Stephanie Meyers work.<strong>

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><p><em>I want to keep meeting new people, enlarging my circle of friends. I have great friends now... really good people. But I'm always ready for what comes next.<em>

_-Paula Danziger_

The memory transfer had been, in one word, _unpleasant_.

It felt as if some strange, ethereal presence had hacked into my mind and was currently fusing all of Delphi's memories, knowledge, and powers with my own, until I was unable to tell mine from hers, and when the presence finally left my mind, and I was once again aware of my surroundings it was only to find Brenna and Rhys in just the same state as I was. Dazed, confused, and soaking from both our earlier swim and the waterfall's mist.

It took us nearly a half an hour before we regained our bearings enough to swim back to the mainland and, after changing back into our regular clothing, which were now incredibly wrinkled from being shoved into the duffel bag for several hours, book a single room, in a tiny beat up hotel.

"Am I the only one who feels as if they've just been mind raped?" Rhys slurred, collapsing onto the bed, which promptly let up a cloud of dust and released several cockroach carcasses

"No," I said, gingerly sitting on the decrepit couch "But I also feel as if I could do anything. All of this knowledge and power…it's overwhelming,"

"We _can _do anything," Brenna told me "but the question is, what it'll be. What are we supposed to do now?"

"We have to do exactly what Delphi said," Rhys said from his spot on the bed "We have to find the others, the six other ad Lys. Then, after we train them, go and stop this Devlin and his army of baddies,"

"You make it sound so easy," Brenna snorted "Where are we supposed to find these af Lys, and who's to say they'll even help us?"

"We'll find the first two, Ishleen and Bree, in the ICU ward of Vermont's Children's Hospital. Their bus was attacked by a group of newborn ad Gang yesterday and they were bitten, if we don't get to them by tomorrow, not only will the doctor's begin to become suspicious of their abnormally fast healing rate, but also Brenna and Ishleen will wake up from their transformation tomorrow, and God only knows what will happen then,"

Rhys and Brenna stared at me oddly, before twin looks of comprehension dawned on their faces.

"Delphi's memories are just as easy to access as our own," I explained to them "I've been sorting through them since I got them, the things Delphi knows and had experienced…" I trailed off to let the two explore the meaning behind my words at a later date.

"So now we go to Vermont," Rhys sighed, pulling her windblown hair into a ponytail "to find the first two of a nearly extinct race of vampires, so that we can fight off the army of an equally extinct race of vampires, to stop an imminent apocalypse,"

"A pretty uneventful week," I laughed.

Rhys made a face "So when are we leaving?"

"In a few hours," I said, rolling off of the couch "Vermont isn't that far away, so I'll have some time to hunt, are you guys with me?"

Rhys nodded "Let's go,"

Brenna pulled her hair up and followed us to the door "What kind of animals does New York have?"

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><p><em><strong>February 25th: Extraction One<strong>_

On February 25th Vermont's Children's Hospital was in pure pandemonium. That morning the hearts of two Jane Does, in the ICU wards had stopped. Two minutes later, the dead girls rose and started screaming.

After several minutes of failed attempts to sedate his patients with a mixture of calming words and a strong tranquilizer drug, Eric Sanders, one of the most distinguished doctors in the hospital, immediately called several doctors to aid him in calming them.

Three hours had past and nearly every hospital personnel had gathered and yet the girls were still hysteric. No one seemed to be able to amble close enough to the two huddled figures without experiencing the unpleasant feeling of being shocked by two a small bolt of lightning, tranquilizer darts fell several feet short and any soothing words seemed to fall upon deaf ears.

Much of the staff was prepared to call in emergency forces when we simply walked into the ICU wards, and after pushing through the crowd of police officers, nurses, and doctors, entered the small white walled hospital room and stopped at Eric's side.

"Hello, Dr. Sanders," Rhys said calmly, ignoring the two newborn af Lys for the moment "My name is Rhys, and these are my sisters, Brenna and Bella," Rhys gestured at the two of us.

Sanders did nothing but nod mutely.

"We heard from a little birdie," I said cheerfully "that you've been having some trouble with two of your patients," I waved a hand at the two screaming girls "my siblings and I believe that we can help calm your patients,"

The doctor watched us for several seconds, before sighing in defeat.

"Normally," he said "we wouldn't allow strangers to enter this ward and deal with patients without proof of relation, but we really are desperate to restore peace and see what's ailing these two, so, by all means, help us,"

I threw him a smile, crossed the room to the two and stopped only a few inches away, studying Bree and Ishleen closely.

They had been young when they had been bitten, Bree maybe fourteen, and Ishleen, younger than four. Both looked alike, with silver blond hair, tiny button noses, and full red lips, but because of the change their features were sharp and angular, reminiscent of a cat. Although Ishleen looked more like a kitten than a fully matured cat. And at the moment, both were screeching loud enough to be passed off as tortured cats.

"They're so young," Brenna said, fury sparkling in her eyes "I could kill the ad Gang who attacked them,"

"And we will," I told her "we can't let them roam free, but right now we have to deal with these two,"

"But _how_?" Rhys asked, exasperated "They obviously are quite content shrieking their heads off,"

I shook my head at him "You clearly have never dealt with troublesome kids, the only way to get them to behave is by being forceful, unyielding,"

Resolutely, I marched forward and after throwing a pointed look over my ears at Rhys, boxed Bree and Ishleen in the ear. Not very hard, but hard enough to jar their brains a little and get them to shut up. And shut up they did.

"Very good, girls," I praised them "now get up,"

Bree and Ishleen looked up at me in confusion, wondering who the hell I was, and why I was hitting them hard enough to snap a normal human's neck, but they obeyed.

"You see, Rhys," I said smugly "they _do _know how to listen. Now, Bree, Ishleen," I addressed the girl "Can you explain to me what in God's name you two thought you were doing,"

"Who _are _you," Bree asked.

"Trade you. You answer my question I answer yours,"

"We don't know what we were doing, or what's going on. All I remember is being burned alive and not being able to move, or even scream, then suddenly I could, and I did,"

I nodded, although she hadn't given the most eloquent explanation I could understand the meaning behind her words "O.k., as for your question, I'm Bella, and I and my siblings are the only ones who can help you understand what happened to you when your bus was attacked,"

"What _did_ happen?"

I looked around at the doctors assembled in the room "Not here, we have to leave,"

"But you can't," Dr. Sanders cut in "these girls can't leave yet, they were in critical condition only three days ago, and their hearts stopped a few hours ago. We have to find out what changed,"

"Brenna do you remember England of 1650?" I asked.

My sister looked at me confused, before my words registered with one of Delphi's memories "Why do you need my help?"

"It's much closer to our area of expertise, Rhys is more experienced with healing,"

She nodded "Okay, I know what to do,"

Before the occupants of the room could comprehend what was happening, Brenna and I closed our eyes. Within seconds, a thick mist reeking of lavender fell across the room.

"What's going on," Bree panicked, grabbing onto Ishleen "What are you doing?"

"We're getting you out of here," I wrapped my arm around Bree's waist, lifted Ishleen onto my hip, and made my way to the exit "By the time the mist is gone all memory and record of you two being here will be gone,"

See below to receive challenge.

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><p><strong>CHALLENGE! CHALLENGE!CHALLENGE!CHALLENGE!CHALLENGE!<strong>

**A/N: So as you can tell this chapter was incredibly short, and well that just won't cut it. However, the reason it's so short is because I have absolutely no idea on how I'm to get Bella and co. to meet/find the other af Lys. And this, my dear readers, is where you come in. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to give me the best situation in which Bella and co. will meet their new coven members, the winners will not only get there idea put into the story, but also will receive three golden stars ***. So give me some ideas people! We all love metaphorical golden stars. **


	12. Chapter Eleven: Convergence

**A/N: You guys must hate my guts, I told you I would update around the end of May, but I didn't. I've neglected you, my amazingly wonderful readers, and for that, I am incredibly sorry. I'm surprised many of you haven't sent me long winded flames and threats to get my shit together and update, but I didn't. You guys are amazingly awesome, and I love you to death. Please take this 15 page chapter as a penance for ****leaving you guys waiting for so long.**

**But before we actually get to the story, I would actually like to dedicate Chapter Eleven to two of my readers. JINGLYJESS and KUMIKA95! Go on, take a bow, you two earned it. A few chapters ago I asked for ideas and these two gave me some awesome ones that will most definitely be being seen in this Chapters.**

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><p>Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyers would never leave her readers waiting for such a long period of time, so henceforth, I am not her.<p>

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><p><em>The future depends on what you do today.<em>

_-Mahatma Gandhi_

"No!" Bree cried, backing away, horror shining in her silver eyes "Absolutely not, I won't!"

"Come on, Bree," I said soothingly "You have to, without it, you'll die,"

"I'd rather die than do something like this, it's sick, and barbaric, and-and cruel,"

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair; it had only been a few hours since we had left the hospital and once again took up residence in a dingy little motel. After we had all settled ourselves as comfortably as people who never got uncomfortable could Brenna, Rhys, and I proceeded to explain everything to Ishleen and Bree, from Brenna's and my torture, to meeting Delphi, to finding them. We told them all about vampires, and werewolves, and the Sig af Lys, and the Adgang, and anything else we thought might be of importance in the long run, and in turn the two, who had taken everything surprisingly well for a sixteen and a four year old, told us about themselves, and what had happened to them before we had found them in the hospital.

Bree Tanner was born in Nevada on March 11, 1990, but lived with her father in Idaho for most of her life. Bree's mother had left when Bree was four, which, Bree had always believed, was the reason why her father hit her. Because of the abuse, Bree felt isolated from her peers, she was a quiet, withdrawn girl. No one ever noticed the signs of her abusive home life, despite copious amounts of physical evidence.

However, after a particularly brutal beating, Bree had had enough and ran away from home a few weeks before her sixteenth birthday. With only enough money for a bus ride to Seattle, Bree began stealing in order to eat, she slept in parks and alleys, any place where she felt even remotely safe, and learned to fend for herself rather quickly. However, only a few months after she had left home, she witnessed a young couple drop a small blond girl of maybe three on the side of the road, and drive away. After waiting for over an hour for the couple to return for the wailing child with no results to show for her hard work, Bree went to the girl and took her in her arms. It took her several minutes to calm the girl enough to have her speak and explain to her what had happened, the girl, Ishleen her name was, was four years old, and claimed that her mother and father hated her because she was a "freak". Bree, knowing what it felt like to be unloved by a parent, offered Ishleen companionship, the child eagerly accepted.

Five months later, the two girls had learned to work as a team, and a rather well functioning one at that. Bree would hunt out potential victims, and Ishleen would use her sweet, innocent looks to con them into giving her money. Their routine brought in large amounts of money, enough to feed them for days one end, and, sometimes, if they were lucky, earned them enough to stay in cheap motels for a few nights. Bree and Ishleen finally felt as if they were getting somewhere in life, they were no longer two young girls thriving on five day old dumpster food and dirty rain water to survive, they were a close knit team with a purpose in life and a way of making money. Who cared if said money earning techniques weren't completely honest? As far as they knew, what they were doing wasn't illegal, the people who gave them money gave it of their own free will, and that was all they cared about.  
>They should have known their good fortune wouldn't last.<p>

It all went to hell in a hand basket on a Tuesday, just a normal, rainy Tuesday evening. Bree and Ishleen had been running low on funds, so Bree went out to hunt, as the two girls had so affectionately dubbed the practice, and almost immediately found the perfect victim. She was a woman, a beautiful woman with a mane of fiery red hair, porcelain white skin, and the elegant but casual look of a person used to being served life's every privilege on a silver platter. Bree pointed the woman out to Ishleen and almost immediately they kicked into action. All it took were a few fat tears and a story of how her and her sister were supposed to be meeting their aunt and uncle in Port Angeles, but had gotten off on the wrong bus stop and were now stranded with no money, for the beautiful woman to offer not only a wad of cash for the bus ride, but also a nice meal in a local diner while they waited for their bus. Bree and Ishleen had, of course, eagerly accepted the offer, and allowed the woman to lead them to a quaint little diner, where they ordered plate loads of food to gorge upon. That was their first mistake; it was only a few hours later that they realized the woman wasn't all that she seemed.

After they had finished their meal, the woman, who they found out was named Victoria, led them down an alleyway with assurances that it was a shortcut to get to the bus stop, as they were about to be late for the bus. They believed her and followed her down the alley. That was their second; they had followed her into a trap. The alley was not a shortcut, it was a dead end, a brick wall three times taller than Victoria, who was the tallest in her six inch stilettos, blocked them from getting to the street, confused, Bree and Ishleen turned to make their way back out onto the street only to find their path blocked by Victoria, who, when they tried to get around her, slammed the two into the wall with impossible strength. She hadn't listened to their screams and begs of release, and she shrugged off their frantic kicks and desperate attempts to get free as if they were nothing, she simply grinned at them and told them that, despite their young age, they would be perfect for her new army. And then she bit them, first Bree, then Ishleen right in their necks on the point where their hearts beat the loudest.

At first all they could feel where the sharp painful prick of something piercing their delicate skin, but within seconds the prick grew and grew until the four year old and the sixteen year old were writhing in agony. The last thing Bree and Ishleen remembered before succumbing to the darkness was another redheaded girl, this one much younger with startling silver eyes leaping over the wall and tackling Victoria.

Rhys, Brenna, and I had been horrified by their tale, while it hadn't been near as gruesome as any of ours had been (for which I was immensely grateful) it was still terrible in it's own right, these two girls had lost their humanity because of a woman's mad quest for power, and one at an age that was so sinfully young. I wanted to cry when I looked at Ishleen, she was four years old and one of the nine vampires destined to save the world, she would never grow old, never suffer through the hell that is puberty, she would never know what if felt like to fall in love, to watch her children and grandchildren grow old and experience life.  
>It was these thoughts, more than anything, that strengthened my resolve to find every last Gift ad Gang, and blow the sons of bitches to kingdom come, but the only way I was going to be able to do that was if I had help from my potential family, four of which we had yet to retrieve. The two closest to us were Darian and Damon, eighteen year old brothers locked away in an institute for the mentally impaired. I shuddered to think why they were there, and what they would do if they woke up with super human strength and powers they couldn't even begin to fathom. The two brothers would need to be picked up first, we were lucky they too were in Vermont, only an hours run away. However before we could go we needed energy, especially Ishleen and Bree, but we were short on time and had no time to hunt.<br>Of course Bree had to make things difficult when she straight up refused to drink the stored blood.  
>"We need to leave Bree," Brenna reasoned "and you need energy, we'll be running for an hour straight and can't have you slowing us down. Just drink it,"<br>"No,"  
>Tuning out Brenna's attempt to persuade Bree into drinking, I retrieved the jug of stored blood from the mini fridge and after separating the entire three gallons into five very large mugs, heated them and passed one to Brenna and Rhys. I was so focused on my task, I never noticed Ishleen coming to stand beside me until she reached up, took one of the remaining heated mugs from the counter, and sat down right where she had once stood. I watched as, tentatively, the four year old girl took a sip, before taking another, and then began gulping down the rest.<br>"Not so bad, is it?" I laughed, wiping away a driblet of blood from her chin, she shook her head, mouth too occupied to give me a verbal response.  
>"You see, Bree," I said over my shoulder "Ishleen likes it,"<br>"Ishleen's four," the brunette scoffed "she'll eat anything that doesn't eat her first,"  
>Huffing, I grabbed a mug, and shoved the drink into her hands "Drink," I ordered "This is animal's blood, drinking it will be much the same as eating a steak, there is nothing wrong with it,"<br>"But-but,"  
>"We're kind of short on time, Bree," I cut her off "Now either drink or stay behind,"<br>"You-you wouldn't leave me!"  
>I signaled to the other three, who immediately drained the rest of their blood and stood to leave.<br>"Fine," she yelped and grabbed her mug. With a deep breath she put the mug to her lips and drank deeply. At first, her face was screwed up in disgust, but as she drank it smoothed out to pleasantly surprised. She quickly drained the last dregs and looked at me expectantly.  
>"Good girl," I grinned "Now, listen up you guys," I clapped my hands to regain everyone's slipping attention "We have quite a bit of things to do, and not enough time to do it, so let's go through the game plan quickly and be on our way,"<br>"We're all ears, boss," Brenna grinned.  
>I made a face at her "There are only four more af Lys to pick up, and luckily they're both in groups of two, like the majority of us have been. The first group is made up of best friends Aria Bane and Evalyn Couelton, both are eighteen and were on a hiking when they were attacked. They, luckily, are located in New Hampshire not even an hour run from our current location, they should be a fairly easy pick up," I sighed woefully "Of course that means that our next two targets, Darian and Damon, eighteen year old twin brothers will not be as easy to retrieve. The brothers have grown up in an institute for the clinically insane all the way in Montana, placed there by their mother who had left them there after the power every potential Sig af Lys possesses developed and became too noticeable for them to hide. Darian and Damon have been living in the institute since they were six, having lived in the juvenile ward when they were first admitted to the institute only to be moved up to adult care when they turned sixteen. Because their mother never showed up after that day she dropped them off, they were unable to leave until she came back to check them out or until they turned eighteen and were able to check themselves out," I grimaced "You can tell that they are going to fit right in with us and all of our incredibly bad luck because in exactly two and a half hours their institute will be attacked by our favorite yellow eyed, mutant vampires the Gift ad Gang. Hopefully we'll be able to get there in time to prevent them from being drained dry," I finished my impromptu speech with a small, smug nod, satisfied with all of the information I'd managed to convey in as short of an amount of time as possible. Unfortunately, Rhys and Brenna were wasting the precious amount of time I'd managed to save us staring at me with wide confused eyes, while Bree and Ishleen and I gave them equally confused looks.<br>Finally I voiced my and my younger coven members thoughts "What the hell is your problem?"  
>"How did you know all of that?" Brenna managed to ask.<br>My confusion grew "The same way we knew how to find Bree and Ishleen, Delphi's memories. I thought you two were able to do the same thing,"  
>"We did," Rhys said, scratching his head more out of habit than of necessity "and I even knew some of the things you were saying about Aria, Evalyn, Darian, and Damon, but not to the extent you obviously did,"<br>I shrugged at the strange phenomenon, weirder things had happened to me "We can ponder this later," I said "but right now we need to get going. In the time it took us to explain everything to Bree and Ishleen, as well as persuade a certain stubborn brunette to stop being a baby, explain all that you needed to know, and deal with these two's curiosity we're going to miss the change of Aria and Evalyn,"  
>"What?" Bree cried "We didn't take that long! I thought it took nearly two days to change,"<br>"Sorry, I misspoke, we're going to miss their awakening, they will be up and about exploring the New Hampshire wilderness in about twenty minutes,"  
>"What does that mean for us?" Brenna sighed.<br>"We'll have to split up, I was thinking you could take Ishleen and Bree to pick up the girls, while Rhys and I go and get Darian and Damon. As long as you three stay put once you find Aria and Evalyn, we'll be able to meet up with you in a few days time. Does that sound good to everyone?"  
>There were sounds of consent all across the room.<br>"Great," I grinned grabbing the duffel bag full of our slowly depleting stash of money and slightly rumpled clothing "Let's go team, it's time to blow this popsicle stand,"

* * *

><p>Evalyn was burning. Evalyn was screaming. Evalyn was being reduced to nothing more than a pile of blacked ash. And all the while she wondered, she had always been a good person, sure she was no saint, she had snuck a few cookies from the jar and maybe an apple or two from the fridge, but that was only when Gwen neglected to feed her and she got really, really hungry. She didn't think anything she'd done in life would warrant her even the shortest visit to hell.<p>

* * *

><p>Aria was numb. At the very first sign of the fire that was trying to devour her she had drawn up her shields, blocking any and all feeling to her body, whether it be good or bad. It was a neat little trick she'd learned after the death of her father and her first day in the custody of her sadistic foster parents.<p>

* * *

><p>Brenna ran as fast as she could while also making sure her two younger charges were able to keep pace with her. But no matter how fast she ran and how hard she pushed the two girls to keep going Bella was right, Aria and Evalyn woke up in the middle of a dark forest their senses enhanced and all alone.<p>

* * *

><p>Darian was excited, and by touching his brothers' bare arm he could tell that he too was excited. They had waited twelve long years for this day, twelve years to finally be from the institution they had no place in. And all it had taken was a decade and two years of pretending to be something they weren't. Normal.<br>"Well Messrs. Deton," the British receptionist grinned "You've managed to pass every test we could throw at you and now that you are legally of age, I am proud to tell you two that you-"  
>A scream pierced the air.<br>A scream that sounded suspiciously male.  
>A scream that sounded suspiciously male and incredibly terrified.<br>The bloodcurdling sound was followed by an even more chilling laugh, laced with power and insanity, two things that do not mix well.  
>Damon shuddered and all Darian had to do was brush his hand along his brothers elbow to feel the pure terror coursing through him "They're here," he whispered.<p>

* * *

><p>Rhys and I ran. And we ran. And we ran, for three hours short, with no stops to take a sip from a roving mountain lion or greet a few nomads we passed. But we still didn't get there in time.<br>Belton Institute for the Mentally Impaired was located smack in the middle of Nowhere, Montana, as far as the eye could see there were trees, trees, and, oh would you look at that, more trees. When Rhys and I arrived we found the usually dull landscape swarming with panicked patients, hysterical doctors, and gleeful venom drinkers.  
>Of course, this being my first time in battle I had to stop and assess the situation. From what I could see there were only seven ad Gang, quite a few to be creating such pandemonium, but it came quite obvious to me as I only just saw one corral and easily kill eight humans in a blink of an eye that these monsters were far from outnumbered. Well, that is before we arrived.<br>"What's the plan, Bells?" Rhys asked, surveying the chaos from his perch in the tree directly beside the one I sat in.  
>"I'm sure that there are more ad Gang in the institute so you deal with the ones out here and I'll get the ones inside. Keep an eye out for Darian and Damon though, they won't be hard to miss,"<br>"Be careful, little sister," Rhys kissed my cheek then leapt from his tree directly into the thick of things.  
>Grinning, I followed his lead, jumping from my tree and running into the building.<br>The institute was just as chaotic inside as it was out, if not more. It seemed that the more sane patients had been the ones who had gone outside in an attempt to flee from the monsters, while the less sane ones had simply holed themselves up under the covers and screamed their lungs out, an easy picking for the ad Gang.

The first ad Gang I came face to face with was just as horrible as the one from my vision. He had filthy hair that fell into greasy knots around his white, pointed face, his skin was a sallow grey that gave him a permanent look of a terminally ill mortal which contrasted greatly with his ghastly yellow eyes that shone with malice and hatred toward no one and everyone.

He hissed at me.

"Damn," I muttered "you are one ugly fucker," then, in a quick efficient move I would never have been able to pull off had I been human, I swung my leg in a wide arc and slammed it into his ribs. Hard. The ad Gang fell like the London Bridge and that was all the advantage I needed to take a handful of his disgusting hair and twist his head, until, with a rather satisfying tearing of skin and snapping of bones, his head came off in my hands.

Fishing the lighter I always kept in my pocket from my absurdly tight jeans, I flicked the little switch and lit the poor bastard up. All that venom in him must have been highly flammable because the ad Gang was nothing but a pile of charred ashes in a matter of seconds.

Boosted by my success, I headed down the hall, pushing the panicking patients out of my way and followed my instincts all the way to the back of the institute/hospital. The first clue that told me I was going in the right direction were the blood stained papers scattered willy-nilly around a small white room, I bent to pick one up.

It was form giving permission to release brothers Darian and Damon Deton.

The next clue was the labored breathing of two nearly dead humans and the satisfied gulps of two very thirsty ad Gang coming behind the door that lead into another room.

With no thought of my own safety, I kicked open the door and, leaping over the bloodless corpse of a blonde woman dressed as a receptionist, and rugby tackled the ad Gang drinking from one of the two copper haired boys. Luckily, I had the element of surprise and was able to dispatch my victim before his companion regained his composure and leapt at me, too bad I was no longer there.

In the blink of an eye I had crossed the room and grabbed a small cylinder shaped object and pulled out my lighter, as the rather volatile venom drinker landed I flicked on the lighter and pushed down on the nozzle of my unconventional weapon. Bright red, apples and cinnamon scented flames leapt forward and engulfed my adversary. Like the other two, he burned easy.

"Who knew Febreeze would be good for anything other than ridding houses across the nation of stinky man smell," I smiled, staring down at the can of air freshening spray in my hand with a new sense of awe and respect.

A soft moan from several paces behind me, shook me from my musings and prompted me to drop the can of spray and cross the room to where the two brothers sat, slumped against the wall.

"Which one are you?" I asked, gently helping the only conscious brother into a more comfortable position.

"Darian," he rasped "My name's Darian and that's my brother-"

"Damon," I completed the sentence for him "I know who he is," Darian seemed too weak to give me anything more than an odd look "So Darian, tell me how you're feeling?"

"Like I've been hit by a bus,"

I laughed softly "Understandable, considering what you just went through. Anything else?"

"My left arm, it feels hot like I'm holding it really close to a bonfire, it's been getting hotter and hotter for the past few minutes,"

I took the aforementioned arm into my cool hands and almost immediately found the two small bite marks located only inches away from the crook of Darian's elbow "And it'll get worse," I told him, laying his arm back down "You'll lose consciousness within a matter of minutes,"

"But-"

"Hush," I moved over to Damon and wiped away the blood leaking from his own fang wounds "Now is not a time for talking, it's best that you save your voice for later,"

"What'll be happening later?"

"You'll be doing a hell of a lot of screaming,"

* * *

><p>Brenna's Point of View:<br>White Mountain National Forest was a very big forest, stretching over one thousand two hundred and twenty five square miles, running through both Maine and New Hampshire. And we were expected to find two frightened and highly elusive vampires in the jungle, although I guess that considering the fact that Bree, Ishleen, and I were highly elusive vampires as well somewhat evened the playing field. But finding them was still a difficult task, but we did eventually find them curled uncomfortably in the hollow of a tree. A position I could sympathize with as I'd been in almost the exact same one for several days not even a month ago.  
>"Hello," I said softly as I slowly knelt beside the tree "Are you Aria Bane and Evalyn Couelton?" the two girls cringed away from me so in an attempt to make them feel more at ease I adopted a teasing tone "What you aren't scared of little old me, now are you? I'm almost as tall as Ishleen here and probably just as intimidating, an easy opponent to beat,"<br>"That's not what your aura says," the redheaded girl said "It's bright, full of colors, blue, and green, and silver. It's powerful,"  
>I tilted my head, contemplating the girl's words "Could you two come out of there? It can't be comfortable being mushed up against each other like that.<br>"Are you here to hurt us?" the meeker, blond girl asked.  
>I shook my head "No,"<br>"Then why are you here?"  
>"I'm here to help, and, if you want, give you a home,"<p>

Bella's Point of View:

* * *

><p>The Deton brothers were strong.<br>After Rhys and I had rounded up and eliminated the remaining ad Gang we had taken Darian and Damon deep into the woods, just in time to escape the local authorities, and away from all civilization in order to keep anyone from hearing their screams, but it turned out we didn't need to because the brothers didn't let out one scream during the transformation. That had been nearly two days ago, which meant that they were nearing the end of their transformation and must have been in excruciating pain.  
>I sighed and turned over on the soft grass to stare up at the cloudy sky "What are we going to do?" I whispered.<br>"What?" Rhys asked from his spot beside me.  
>"What are we supposed to do now? We've done what Delphi wanted us to, we found the last af Lys and we'll be reunited with our coven tomorrow. So now what? Are we just supposed to wander the world until the time comes for us to face Devlin?"<br>Rhys shifted his position so that he was lying on his side and looking at me "Do you want to continue to be a nomad?" he asked solemnly.  
>"No. Yes," I sighed in frustration "I don't know. But even if I knew that I did want to settle down it wouldn't be possible. We have little over a thousand dollars left in the duffel, not enough to buy or even rent a house, so settling down isn't an option,"<br>"Have you ever thought about selling?" Rhys asked.  
>"Selling what exactly?" I laughed incredulously.<br>"Your parents' homes,"  
>"The smile slid from my face "Sell Charlie and Renee's houses?"<br>"Yeah, I'm sure that your parents left everything to you in their wills,"  
>"Yes," I said slowly "and that would be a rather good idea if it weren't for the fact that I'm supposed to be missing or dead in the werewolves case,"<br>"Do you have a will?"  
>"No, I never thought I'd need to make on so early in life,"<br>Rhys grinned mischievously "Well then, here's what we do,"

* * *

><p>Twenty three long hours of planning with Rhys, consoling distraught newborn af Lys with promises of explaining everything in due time, and endless running, Darian, Damon, Rhys, and I finally reached the New Hampshirian (is that even a word?) section of White Mountain National Forest, and to be quite frank, it was huge. So that's why I couldn't fault Darian when he said.<br>"How in the hell do you expect to find your friends in here?"  
>I grinned at him "Take a deep breath through your nose,"<br>"What?"  
>"Go on,"<br>Sparing me one last suspicious glance, Darian inhaled deeply through his nose.  
>"What do you smell?" I asked.<br>"Everything,"  
>I nodded, one short jerk of my head "Exactly, with time, you'll learn how to block out all smells but a single one, and follow it,"<br>"Like a dog?" Damon asked curiously.  
>"We've never been compared to dogs before," Rhys snorted "but I guess that's one way of putting it,"<br>"Observe," I ordered, and stepped into the forest, after a few minutes of smelling around, I caught Brenna's scent and began running in the direction it smelled newest. Five minutes into the run Darian, Damon, Rhys, and I burst into a small clearing and found Bree, Ishleen, and Brenna sitting beside the two girls I knew to be Aria and Evalyn.  
>"Hey there, sexy" Brenna grinned, eyeing my windswept hair and disheveled, ash and dirt covered clothing.<br>"Hey there yourself," I scowled playfully "while you guys have been languishing in the lap of luxury, surrounded by all of the mountain lions and bears you could ever want, and miles away from the closest human, we," I waved my hand wildly at myself and the three men in the group "have been battling Gift ad Gang, hiding from local authorities, and planning my death,"  
>"Sounds like an eventful three days," Bree grinned.<br>"You have no idea," I huffed, throwing myself onto the ground.  
>Throwing me wary glances, Darian, Damon, and Rhys sat down as well.<br>"So," Damon said after several minutes of silence "are you going to tell us what's going on now?"  
>"Yeah," the redhead, Evalyn said "we've been awake for three day now, but they still haven't told us anything about what's happened to us,"<br>I sighed wearily, and ran a hand over my face "Can't I just rest for a little?"  
>"No,"<br>"Fine," I pulled myself into a sitting position and looked over to Aria and Evalyn "I'm sure Brenna, Ishleen, and Bree explained to you what attacked you and what that makes you," the two nodded "Good because I have absolutely no desire to spend the next half hour convincing you that vampires do in fact exist and that you are now one of the undead,"  
>"Actually," Brenna cut in "considering the situation, they were easily convinced,"<br>"That's more than we can say for these two," Rhys said, waving a hand at Darian and Damon who threw him sheepish grins.  
>"Well, that'll make things a hell-sorry Ishleen, heck of a lot easier, to explain things,"<br>And so, once again I launched into an explanation of all that had happened, which in fact was beginning to get quite old. After I finished Brenna and my tale, Rhys told his, then Bree and Ishleen, then Darian and Damon, who told it more for the benefit of Aria and Evalyn than the rest of ours, finally we got to Aria and Evalyn, the only ones whose history remained a mystery.  
>Evalyn and Aria were best friends, both seventeen year old girls who attended the same high school, and had come together because they both recognized the signs of abuse on the other girl, even if authorities hadn't. Evalyn had grown up with her abusive mother, Gwen, who never hit her or physically hurt her in any way, but sometimes, Evalyn said, she wished that she would hit her instead of locking her in a closet for days at a time, with no food, the littlest amount of water, and not a ray of sunlight, or breath of fresh air.<br>Aria, on the other hand, had lived a fairly privileged life with her father and stepmother, both adults were bigwigs in some important company, and thus earned enough to ensure that their children would never have to work a day in their life. However, her happy life was abruptly torn away from her when her parents were killed in a car accident on their way home from the airport after a vacation to the Bahamas and she was placed in the custody of two complete strangers..  
>Within a matter of days, Aria went from living happily with two loving parents, to being stuck in a foster home with a man and woman who worked her like a slave, and enjoyed beating her and starving her nearly to death.<br>She and Evalyn had grown closer, much like Brenna and I had, under the duress of physical and emotional abuse, planning the day when they would be from their tyrannical guardians. That day, however, came a lot sooner than they had expected when Jensen and Paula Naro, Aria's guardians, beat her within an inch of her life, and left her shoved in her closet of a bedroom for several days.  
>When Aria didn't come to school, Evalyn became worried and went to Aria's foster parents' home and snuck in through a window only to find Aria half dead on the floor of her bedroom.<br>That very same day Evalyn stole all of the money she could find in the Naros' home and got herself and Aria on the first bus to far, far away. The two girls spent a few days lying low in a dingy little motel while Aria's wounds healed, before setting off into the White Mountain National Forest, a forest large enough to keep them hidden while the searches for them died off. It had been here were they were attacked in the dead of the night by what they now knew to be a vampire.  
>"So the vampire just bit you?" Brenna asked as they concluded their story "and then <em>ran<em>,"  
>Evalyn shrugged "I guess," she said "it all happened so fast, we could barely make sense of what was going on,"<br>"But why?"  
>"Think of the havoc two new born vampires running unchecked through New Hampshire could wreak," I said, rising to my feet to aimlessly pace around the group "These creatures, the ad Gang, thrive on chaos and death and despair, and what better way to raise hell than to let to let you two run free. It could very well have exposed our kind," angrily I kicked at a tree "Why us? Why do a bunch of kids have to save a world that I sometimes don't think is actually worth saving,"<br>Cautiously, Brenna walked to my side and touched my elbow "Bell?"  
>"I'm tired, Bren," I sighed "I'm so tired and I don't think I can take much more of this. All I want to be is <em>normal<em>! Is that too much to ask?"  
>"Yes," Rhys said "it is. Because like it or not Bell we're not normal, and we'll <em>never <em>be normal, no matter how much we wish otherwise," he held out a hand to Brenna and me "Now why don't you two come sit down so I can tell you guys the plan me and Bella came up with,"

* * *

><p>"It's brilliant!" Brenna grinned "You two are geniuses,"<br>"I don't know," I hesitated "There are a lot of risks involved in doing this. What if something happens? Or-or we get caught?"  
>"We're vampires," Bree scoffed "and powerful ones at that, it's very unlikely that we'll get caught, and on the off chance that we do, you can just do what you did at the hospital when you came to get Ishleen and me, and erase their memories,"<br>"I don't know,"  
>"In the end it is up to you, Bella," Darian said reasonably "it <em>is <em>your money and your life we're talking about,"  
>I sighed "Fine, we'll do it, but don't come crying to me if things go to hell,"<p>

* * *

><p>"I don't think this is a good idea, you guys," I said, clutching tightly to Rhys' arm.<p>

"We know, Bella," Brenna sighed "You've told us this a _gazillion_ times,"  
>"I <em>really<em> don't like this, we're way too close to Forks,"  
>"You already agreed that we have to do this in order to carry out the plan,"<br>"I know but-"  
>"No buts," Brenna cut in "we're doing this, and that's final,"<p>

I opened my mouth to protest, but before I could speak Brenna dragged me into the quaint little office where we were greeted by a smiling blond woman whose smile grew wider when she saw Rhys.  
>"Hello, sir," she said, blatantly ignoring me and Brenna "I'm April, what can I do for you?"<br>"We're here to see Mr. Jenks," Brenna said, her smile just as fake as the receptionists'  
>"Do you have an appointment, Miss?"<br>"No, but-"  
>"Then, I'm sorry, but you will not be permitted to see Mr. Jenks. As you may know he is a very busy man and thus cannot take unscheduled appointments, especially not from," April looked Brenna up and down "little girls like you,"<br>_What the hell?_

"Look, lady," Brenna snarled "I don't have ti-"  
>I reached out, and touched Brenna's arm, almost immediately she fell silent and turned to me, question in her eyes. I winked and stepped forward.<br>"April," I smiled sweetly "you don't mind if I call you April, do you?"  
>The woman nodded her head sharply "I would in fact,"<br>"All right then, _April_, here's what you're going to do, you're going to push your little button, announce us to Mr. Jenks, and let us go on to meet him. You want to know why?"  
>"Why?" the blond haired woman sneered.<br>"Simple, because if you don't, tonight, at exactly eight o'clock, Mr. Jenks will receive a call on his personal cell phone explaining to him in great detail exactly what you do on the days you claim to be sick. Am I understood?"

April paled "Give me a second," the woman snatched the receiver of her work phone from the cradle and furiously punched in a few numbers. We waited patiently as she muttered softly in the phone, pretending we couldn't understand every word that was being spoken. Finally, April hung up.

"Mr. Jenks will see you now,"

"Thank you," Brenna grinned sweetly.

April snarled in response, sounding uncannily like an ad Gang.

"Very smooth, Bell," Brenna laughed softly as we walked down the hall toward Jenks' office "By the way what does April do during the time she claims to be sick?"

"In all honesty I don't know," I admitted "I heard her talking on the phone just as we walked in, she was bragging about how Jenks was a complete moron to let her off for so many sick days without knowing what she was really doing. Humans are so easily manipulated,"

Rhys snorted and reached out to knock on the mahogany door with the bronze nameplate naming it as Jason Jenks Attorney at Law's office.

"Come in," the male voice called from behind the closed door.

"Let the fun begin," I muttered and pushed open the door.

Behind a large mahogany desk sat a squat, paunchy man with a bald head and dressed in an expensive silk suit "April," the man said, attention focused on a stack of papers sitting on his desk "I thought I said I didn't want to be disturbed unless you've come with incredibly strong spirits,"

"We're not your assistant," Rhys said, seating himself in one of the straight backed chairs set in front of Jenks' desk.

The attorney's head shot up "What?" he gasped, suddenly going a deathly pale "Who-? How-?"

"Hello, Mr. Jenks" I smiled as Brenna and I sat down "I'm Bellana Kane, and these," I gestured to Rhys and Brenna "are my siblings, Brenna and Ren. We're here for documents,"

Beads of sweat popped across Jenks' forehead "Are you now?" he asked, though the words were spoken calm enough all three of us could see the man's anxiety "And what type of documents do you need? Are you here to file a lawsuit? A divorce? Restraining order?"

"I think you know," Rhys said calmly those aren't the sort of documents were speaking of,"

"I'm afraid I have no idea what you're asking for, then,"

"Dear god," Brenna sighed "Why must he make things so difficult?" she trained her eyes on Jenks "Now listen here, little man, we know who you are, we know what you do, so please let's drop these fake innocent pretenses and cut straight to the chase. Understood?"

Jenks began to protest, but thought better off it once he spotted the death glare Brenna was throwing him "Understood," he sighed, mopping at his forehead.

"Excellent," she grinned "Now onto business. My siblings are here for the whole shebang, birth certificates, grade school records, and passports for seven people," I reached into my purse and threw down a thin manila folder "In that folder," Brenna continued "is all of the information and pictures you'll need to complete the documents,"

With shaking hands, Jenks picked up the folder and thumbed through it "This is quite a lot for me to do. How soon do you want it?"

"Three days from now," I said bluntly.

"Three days!" the part time document forger sputtered, then quickly regained his composure when he saw my arched brow "I mean, that's a lot to do in three days,"

"We understand that," Rhys said "and we will willingly pay any price it takes to have all of our documents done within three days. But if this is too big of a job for you we could always find someone to do this for us elsewhere," we all stood, as if preparing to leave.

"No!" Jenks cried "No, no, it's alright. I was just taken by surprise is all,"

"Very good," I sat back down "Now, let's discuss prices,"

"Ah, well, yes. Seeing as you want so much done for so many people in so little time the price will be quite high,"

"As we said earlier, we will pay anything needed to get this job done, and done properly,"

"Well then," Jenks grabbed a slip of paper and scribbled a number down onto it "Here is my price,"

The paper read five hundred-thousand dollars. Five hundred times the amount of money we could afford.

I sighed, I really didn't want to have to do this, but we were desperate, and in the end, this would benefit Jenks. We would use the money we earned from this to save his life.

"Eight hundred dollars," I said "No more,"

"_Eight hundred dollars-_" Jenks spluttered, I locked eyes with him "is just fine. I'll have the documents ready for you in three days time, it was wonderful doing business with you,"

"The pleasure was all ours," I stood up, and headed for the door "Come on you two," I said to Brenna and Rhys, who still remained in their seats, staring at me, dumbfounded.

"But-? What did-? How?" Brenna stuttered as she and Rhys joined me out in the hall.

I grinned at the two "Magic,"

* * *

><p>After exiting Jenks' office, Rhys, Brenna, and I headed out of the city and, much to my chagrin, Forks, or more specifically Charlie's house, where Bree, Ishleen, Darian, Damon, Aria, and Evalyn waited for us.<p>

"Finally!" Bree cried from where she sat on the couch when we slipped into the back entrance of the house "You've been gone for like forever and a day,"

"Two hours, Hun," I ruffled Bree's hair and, ignored her cry of indignation, sat down on the floor of the living room, where everyone was congregated "We've been gone for maybe two hours,"

"So what happened?" Evalyn asked Brenna, Rhys, and I "Did you get the papers? Did everything go alright?"

"We have to wait three days for them to be finished," Rhys said "and yeah, things did go alright. Better than alright, wouldn't you say, Bell," I cringed, on the way home I had stubbornly refused to tell them what had happened with Jenks even though I knew it would, one way or another, catch up with me.

"What happened?" Darian asked.

Brenna gave a shortened account of what had happened in Port Angelos, from our rather unpleasant meeting with the receptionist, April, to Jenks suddenly and unexpectedly agreeing to my demand.

"One moment he was telling us that all of the papers would cost five hundred thousand dollars, and we were all worried because, well, we don't have that, but then Bella just says eight hundred. At first it looked like Jenks was going to protest, but then Bella locked eyes with him and he just agreed," Brenna turned to me "So tell us, Bella, what exactly did you do to Jenks?"

I shrugged, uncomfortable at the attention the seven were giving me "I'm sure that, by now, you all know that when we were still human we each had a gift," a look of comprehension dawned on Brenna's face as everyone nodded "well, mine was the ability to manipulate a persons mind," I winced "among others,"

"Among others?" Damon repeated.

I waved a hand dismissively "It does not matter, now's not the time to get into that. Right now, we have bigger things to worry about,"

"Oh?" Evalyn asked "Like what?"

"We still have one more part of the plan we need to carry out," I leapt to my feet, despite the deep sense of foreboding settled in the pit of my stomach "We might as well get it over with now. Come on gang, let's go hunting,"

* * *

><p>"I'm not so sure about this, Bella," Damon muttered, crouching down beside me.<p>

"Of course you're not, but that's because you've never tried it before," I whispered.

"But just look at him, he's so _big_,"

I snorted "Of course he is, but that doesn't mean a thing he may be big but you're strong, show that lion who's boss. Trust me, it'll be worth it,"

"It will?"

"Of course," I whisper/cried, careful not to startle the mountain lion slumbering on the branch of a tree not ten feet away from us "Carnivores like bears and mountain lion beat herbivorous elk any day of the week. Now just jump onto him, and before he can really put up any kind of fight, bite down on his neck and drink,"

Damon cast me an uncertain look, I grinned and nodded encouragingly.

Taking a deep breath, Damon adjusted his stance then, in a single graceful move, leapt onto the lion, which woke with a high pitched shriek of fury.

"Bite down, Damon," I called out to the redhead wrestling with the lion "on the throat where the pulse is strongest,"

With his superior strength and control, it really wasn't very hard for Damon to subdue the lion and begin drinking from it.

When he had finished, he leapt to his feet, an exhilarated grin on his face "How did I do?"

"For your first time hunting a mountain lion, that was excellent, a little on the…on the…" I trailed off as the musty smell of wet dog rode in on the northern wind "Well, damn," I muttered "that was a hell of a lot faster than I had expected,"

"What?" Damon asked worriedly "What's wrong,"

"Do you smell that? That wet dog smell?" he sniffed the air and when he caught the scent his nose crinkled in disgust, I laughed "Yeah, that's the smell of the next part of our plan. The werewolves are a comin'"

* * *

><p>Damon and I ran back to the riverside, where the rest of the group had found a whole herd of elk.<p>

"The wolves are here," I said, almost immediately everyone dropped their respective elk and came to my side "Remember the plan, everyone. Split into groups of two and go hide in the trees, Rhys take Bree and Ishleen, Darian and Damon you two stick together, same goes for you Evalyn, Aria, Brenna and I will stay down here to greet the wolves. Move out, people, from the strength of the scent, I'd say the wolves will be here in less then ten minutes,"

"What about their scents?" Brenna asked "They're all over the place,"

I frowned and looked up at the cloudy sky "Let's make it rain,"

"Make it rain?" she repeated incredulously "_Can _we do that?"

I nodded "Delphi could so in extension we can, just focus, the memory will come to you,"

Brenna and I closed our eyes in concentration, sifting through Delphi's not quite yet settled memories until we came across several of her remembering how it felt to manipulate the clouds to give off rain. And it rained.

It didn't last long, maybe three or four minutes, and didn't branch out more than fifty feet around, with us standing in a dry spot smack in the middle, but it was all we needed, their scents had washed away in the downpour.

"That was amazing," Brenna breathed, eyes shining with barely suppressed delight.

I beamed at her, but was deprived my right to respond when we heard the soft pad of three sets of bare feet, not even a hundred feet away.

"They're here," I pulled Brenna down to sit beside me in the damp grass and waited.

Within minutes, three human Quileutes, Sam, Jared, and Jacob, walked into our little clearing.

"Hello, Spirit wolves," I said serenely "It's been too long,"

"What are you two doing here?" Sam asked, foregoing any pleasantries, though he was careful to keep his voice gentle "We thought you left nearly two weeks ago,"

"Oh we did," Brenna said cheerfully.

"But we decided to come back,"

"To tie up a few loose ends,"

"Then we'll be off to live out the rest of eternity in relative peace and safety,"

The werewolves exchanged odd glances.

"Is something troubling you?" I asked sweetly.

"Well," Jared said hesitantly "you two just seem, um- just a bit more…"

"Calm?" Brenna asked.

"Sane," Jacob said "You seem _a lot _saner since we last saw you,"

I grinned "Well, we have something of a confession to make,"

"_Most_ of our insanity was just an act, for the Cullen's"

"Why?" Sam asked, face scrunched in a familiar expression of confusion.

I shrugged "Your enemy is more likely to underestimate you if they believe you have the mental capacity of a five year old,"

The three men looked suitably impressed, but also slightly confused.

"You view the Cullen's as your enemy?" Jared asked "Why?"

"Bella," Brenna said bluntly "They treated her like shit, like a useless little toy they could treat like trash. They only realized what they were missing out on when she was missing, possibly dead. Do we really need any other reason,"

Sam, Jared, and Jacob shook their heads, their expressions solemn.

Brenna, recognizing the reason for their sobriety, threw me a look that practically screamed, _Tell them!_

I shook my head, just the tiniest of movements. _No, I'm not ready, yet._

Her eyes narrowed to slits. _Do it or I will._

I pressed my lips together and looked straight ahead, over the Quileutes heads, arms crossed petulantly over my chest.

"What was that?" Jacob asked suspiciously.

I arched an eyebrow in question..

"I know those looks, what are you guys hiding from us?"

Brenna glared at me "Sissy," she snapped "tell them,"

"Fine," I huffed, then looked to the three expectant men "We haven't exactly been honest with you guys,"

"What do you mean," Sam frowned.

I bit my lip nervously, this was _so_ not how I wanted to spend my afternoon "When we were last here, in Forks, we told you and the Cullen' about our time with Victoria," I sighed "most of what we said was true, but their was one _little _detail we tweaked,"

"And that was…?"

"There were never three people in Victoria's little torture chamber, there were only ever two, me and Brenna," I gestured at my sister.

"_What_?" Jacob gasped, he looked angry, but also incredibly hopeful "So Bella wasn't with you guys? She was never tortured? She could still be alive!"

"I never said that,"

Jacob's hope turned to confusion "But-yes- you just said that-"

"Come on, Simian," I teased "I'm sure you've got a brain somewhere inside that little head of yours, use it,"

Jacob stared at me, mouth agape "Did you just call me…" I tilted my head, a small smirk on my face.

With a shout, Jacob rushed at me, determination in my eyes.

"Jacob, no!" Sam cried, as he and Jared made to grab him, but they were too slow, he brushed right past them. However, instead of tearing me apart limb by limb like they expected, Jacob engulfed me in a hug so tight I would have broken my back and several other important bones had I still been human.

"My god, Bella, he whispered "You have no idea how much I've missed you,"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So there you have it, I know a lot of people have been waiting for the wolves to finally find out about Bella, so I decided to be nice and relieve you of you misery. You can look forward to the rest of the wolves finding about Bella and her little coven, and _maybe _a confrontation with the Cullen's, although I'm not one hundred percent sure about the latter yet.**

**On a completely different note while Blue Moon may have been on hiatus, I was still planning out what would be going on in the story, and I have come to the conclusion that is near impossible to fit Alec in without becoming totally cliché, so I decided to do something crazy, unpredictable, I chose one of the bottom two pairings. Which one? ****You'll just have to wait and see.**


	13. Chapter Twelve: If I'm Dying I'm Lying

**Sorry for not updating yesterday, I have a computer that refuses to work.**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: I'm giving ya'll a quick one this time, I do not own Twilight. There. You see? Simple. Easy as pie. Piece of cake.<strong>

* * *

><p><em>Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.<em>_  
>-<em>_Arthur Schopenhauer_

* * *

><p>"What," Sam gasped, he rushed forward and pulled Jacob away from me to get a good look at my face "You look like nothing like Bella. How do you know Jake?"<p>

"When we were little," Jacob explained "before Bella and Charlie started meeting up in California rather than Forks, Billy and I would spend a lot of time at Charlie's house, me and Bell were like brother and sister, attached at the hip, we would do everything together. She started calling me Simian after she told me my table manners were apelike. Only she has ever called me that, or even knew about the name until now. That's how I knew,"

"Are you really, Bella?" Jared whispered.

I nodded "It's me, Jar-Jar," I almost regretted speaking when I was once again engulfed by three incredibly canine smelling werewolves. Almost.

"If it was physically possible, I would be crying right now," Brenna grinned "This is truly a Kodak worthy moment,"

Sam, Jared, and Jacob pulled away, trying to surreptitiously swipe at their overbright eyes.

"Who are you?" Jacob asked Brenna "I mean, before you were changed, who were you?"

"I was Brenna Castelliana, a very unhappy girl, until I met Bella,"

"We met in the basement of our own personal hell," I pointed out.

Brenna shrugged "So?"

Jacob slung an arm over my shoulder "Bella doesn't know the effect she has on people,"

"Like hell I don't," I shoved him away from me "Now enough with these chick flick moments, we came here for a reason and I'll be damned if you saps distract me from it,"

"And what reason would that be?" Jacob queried, cocking an eyebrow.

I shook my head "Call the other wolves, then I'll explain, I've told this story more times than I care to count and I refuse to tell it any more than I have to,"

"We'll tell them to meet up with us at the First Beach,"

"What about the treaty?"

Sam snorted "Seriously, Bella. Vampire or not, you're family, we trust you, and anyone you chose to associate with, not to lay waste to La Push and kill all of the locals,"

"And what do you think the rest of the pack will think about this?" Brenna asked.

"They'll think that two teeny tiny female vampires will be easy picking if they decide to attempt any unwanted mischief in their territory,"

I smirked "Well, about that,"

"What?" Jared asked warily.

"Well, I think you should know that we've been a little…busy, since you last saw us,"

"Busy doing what?"

"Oh, you know," Brenna said elusively "traveling the northern United States,"

"Meeting new people," I added

"And just causing mayhem,"

"…and mischief…"

"…all around,"

Sam, Jared, and Jacob exchanged glances "What," they all exclaimed at once.

"For God's sakes will you two stop speaking in twisted little, back and forth riddles," Jacob said, exasperated "and just tell us what you were doing,"

"Oh fine," I sighed.

"Party pooper," Brenna muttered.

"Well, during our time away from Forks, we've been scouring the northern regions of America for those like us,"

"And what do you mean by 'those like us'?" Sam asked.

"All in good time," I assured him before turning to the trees "Guys it's safe for you to come out now,"

All around us trees shivered with the slightest of weights as all of my coven members leapt from their perches high above our heads.

"Boys," I grinned "I'd like you to meet Rhys, Bree, Ishleen, Aria, Evalyn, Darian, and Damon. Our new coven members,"

"Bella…" Jared whispered, expression suitably dazed "What did you two do?"

"As I said, Jar-Jar," I said patiently "it will al be explained in due time. Now do you still trust us enough to go to La Push or will the pack be meeting us here,"

Sam shook his head slowly, rattling his thoughts back into place "What I said still stands," he said "Vampire or not, you're family, we trust you, and anyone you chose to associate with,"

I smiled softly "Thank you, Sammy. It's nice to know that you all still have my back,"

"It's not like we have a choice," Jacob grinned "You'd kick our asses if we even though about thinking about leaving you,"

"Oh, ha ha ha," I said sarcastically "very funny. Now get moving you idiot, we've got place to be and things to do,"

His grin only widened "Race you,"

"Oh, please," I scoffed "I really don't have the patience to deal with your bitching after I wipe the floor with you,"

Jacob sniffed exaggeratedly "Correct me if I'm wrong, but is that fear I smell,"

"You know what, Black, you're on,"

Jacob cackled in delight as he whipped his shirt off of his head "Prepare to go down, Bell,"

"My god, you two," Brenna said in exasperation "Let's at least try to act our ages and not our shoe sizes,"

"Looking at Jake's huge feet I wouldn't be surprised if the two numbers were one and the same," I taunted. He responded by changing into a giant russet wolf "Who's going to count down for us?"

"I will," Evalyn said, stepping forward. She drew a line through the dirt "Crossing this line before I saw go equals instant disqualification," she warned "Now, are we ready?" we both nodded "On your mark, get set…_Go_!"

The moment the word left her mouth we shot off like two speeding bullets racing toward the First Beach.

Sam sighed and turned to Jared "I guess we better go and warn the others that we'll be having visitors of the undead kind showing up on First Beach within the next three minutes and not to kill them on sight,"

"You know that for some reason," Brenna said wryly "that was strangely unreassuring,"

Sam grinned "Don't worry, we'll make sure the big bad wolves don't hurt you,"

* * *

><p>"I win!" I screamed in triumph kicking up clouds of sand in a victory dance "I win! I win! I win! And guess what that means Jacob Black!"<p>

A now human Jacob jogged to my side a sullen expression on his face "What?" he pouted.

"You lose!" I laughed at his expense, before seating myself on a piece of petrified driftwood a sigh of contentment on my lips.

"You only won because I let you," Jacob protested seating himself behind me.

"Sure, Hun," I nodded patronizingly "Tell yourself whatever helps you sleep at night,"

"It's true,"

I scooped a handful of sand and flung it in his face "Shut up,"

* * *

><p>Sam's Point of View:<p>

_So you're saying,_ Seth said incredulously, _that Bella is _alive_?_

_No, _I sighed over the mental link, _she most definitely _not _alive._

_Oh, you know what I mean, _he said, _as alive as a vampire can get._

_Well, then yeah. She's here and she has her own coven._

_A _coven_, _Paul exclaimed, _of how many? _

_Not including her? Eight._

_Fuck. Nine vampires? And you're letting them all come to the First Beach. _Colin joined the conversation _Are you out of your mind, Sam?_

_The second in command, Brenna, assured us that she and all of her coven members are animal drinkers and are perfectly in control of their thirst._

_And you believed her?_

_Just meet us at First Beach, and for the love of all things holy, _please_ do not attack any of our guest unless given a good reason to do so._

_Got it, boss. _Embry said, _We'll see you at First Beach._

* * *

><p>"I spy with my little eye, something blue,"<p>

"The sky?"

"Yeah,"

"I spy with my little eye, something…tan,"

"The sand?"

"Damn it, yeah. I spy with my little eye something…"

"You know, Jacob," I huffed turning on my side "as surprising as this may seem, I'm not enjoying this game,"

"What!" he exclaimed "Why not? We used to play this all the time and you loved it,"

"Yeah well, the last time we played this game we were six and you had a little more of an imagination,"

"What's wrong with my imagination?"

"I hate to break it to you," I said remorselessly "but it's severely lacking,"

"It is not!"

"I spy with my little eye something blue? Something _tan_? If that's not lacking, I don't know what is!"

"Why don't you take a shot, it's not like there's anything I can really use to test my imagination,"

"You know what fine! I spy with my little eye something…silver,"

Jacob looked around, his eyebrows furrowed "Your eyes?"

I shook my head.

"The clouds?"

I snorted.

"The…the rocks?"

"No,"

"Well, then what is it?"

Smirking, I pointed out to the sea, where a school of silverfish were darting through strands of seaweed.

"That's cheating!" Jacob cried.

"No, it's not,"

"Yes, it is"

"No it is not,"

"Yes, it is!"

"No it's _not_!"

"Yes it _is!_"

"No. It. Is. Not!"

"Yes. It. Is!"

"No, it's not, you spawn eyed, parrot faced, wazzock,"

Jacob gasped shooting to his feet "How dare you, you triple nosed yellow bellied sap sucker,"

"You know what!" I shouted shooting to my feet as well "Any similarity between you and humans _must _be purely coincidental,"

"Anyone who told you to be yourself couldn't have given you worse advice,"

"Have you ever wonder what life would be like if you had received enough oxygen at birth?"

"Do you want people to accept you as you are or actually like you?"

"I'd like to see things from your point of view but I can't seem to get my head that far up my ass!"

"What in the hell is going on here?"

Jacob and I turned on her heels to face Sam, Jared, my entire coven, and the rest of the pack in human form.

"Go on!" I sneered at Jacob "Tell them everything you know, that should only take about ten seconds,"

"Bella!" Brenna gasped "That was low," Jacob nodded emphatically.

"What?" I said indignantly "He _is _living proof that man can live without a brain,"

"You know," Jacob scowled "I'll never forget the day we first met, but I'll sure as hell keep on trying,"

"Oh, keep on talking, maybe one day you'll say _something _intelligent,"

"As amusing as this is," Sam cut in "aren't you here for a reason?"

Jacob and I glared at each other for several more seconds before huffing in unison and throwing ourselves back onto our sitting positions.

As everyone else found themselves a comfortable place to sit, Ishleen skipped over to me and sat herself in my lap "You said a lot of bad words, Belly," she said cheerfully.

"I'm sorry, Ishleen, but that flea bitten mongrel always seems to bring out the worst in me," Jacob seemed awfully proud of that.

"So you're really Bella, then?" Seth asked, studying my face intently "Because you don't look like her at all,"

"Yep," I grinned "It's me, Isabella Marie Swan, in all of her glory,"

"Have you ever met anyone who could get Jacob that riled up and _then _match him insult for crazy insult?" Embry snorted.

"But if your really Bella then why did you tell us that you were dead? And why do you look so different"

"I guess I better start from the beginning," I said reluctantly.

"Please do,"

I sighed, then proceeded to tell my tale, with the help of my coven it was a lot easier to cover all of the finer details in a lot less time, but it still took nearly two hours, to chronicle Brenna and my change, our time with Charlie, Rhys' change, our trip to the Horseshoe Falls to find Delphi, the hunt for the rest of our coven members, as well as their individual stories.

"So yeah," I said finally finishing "that's our story,"

Quil whistled appreciatively "That was one hell of a story,"

"Okay, wait, wait, wait," Sam said "Your telling us that you made the oracle Delphi and she told you that you nine are the last of a near extinct race and that in almost half a year you're expected to battle hundreds, maybe _thousands_ of what was supposed to be an equally dying race, that is hell bent on destroying the world as we know it?"

Evalyn nodded "That about sums it up,"

"Well," Jacob said seriously "I don't know about the rest of the pack, but I will be there with you guys on the night of the blue moon ready to kick some venom drinkers' butts,"

"I think I can speak for the rest of the pack when I say we will _all _be there," Sam said and was instantly met with words of assent from the rest of the Quileutes.

I grinned at the dozen or so werewolves that had all just agreed without hesitation to fight a fight that was not their own "Thank you, you guys,"

Jacob slung an arm around my shoulder "What kind of protectors of the human race would we be if we didn't offer to help?" he grinned impishly "Besides you're like the sister I never wanted, I would never let you run off to fight a battle without me,"

"Aaaw," I cooed "how sweet of you," I pinched his cheeks like an overbearing grandmother.

"Now onto the next order of business," Brenna said "We need to find out what we'll be doing to prepare for the ad Gang,"

"What do you mean by prepare?" Brady, one of the younger wolves, asked "Is there really that much you can do,"

Rhys nodded "You guys aren't the only ones we plan on asking to help fight the venom drinkers, we'll have to travel to every continent to find covens and nomads powerful enough to even stand a chance against the ad Gang,"

"So we'll need time to find them," Darian said "and then train them so they'll know what to expect,"

"We also have to train ourselves," Bree added "Bella, Brenna, and Rhys have the information about our gifts and we all have the actual gifts, now we have to learn to actually be able to use them,"

"We have a little more than five months to get everything done," I said "So here's what I think we should do. We need to rent a house, in one of the northern states, the more secluded the better, and spend a month working on our abilities and becoming closer as a coven. After that month is up we should split into two groups, one group will go out to a predetermined place to persuade any vampires to come to help in the fight, if they agree bring them back to the house and the group already there will train them while the first group goes back out to find more recruits. We'll switch things up every few trips, so that the recruits will be familiar with all of us and so one group won't be trapped in the house for months.

"After three months we should all reconvene at the house and spend a little under a month working together as a unit," I looked to the wolves "that's when you guys should come, and a week before the Blue Moon we'll all go to the northern islands of the Yukon Territories in Canada, where we'll wait for the ad Gang to wake up,"

"That sounds like a solid plan to me," Seth said.

"Yeah, but there's one little problem with it," Sam said.

"What?" I asked.

"You said your going to rent a house and travel the world, but that takes money, money that none of us, to my knowledge, has,"

I smiled "Very good point, Sammy," I commended him "That's actually one of the reasons why we're here," and so I explained the plan Rhys and I had come up with while Darian and Damon had been changing.

"That's risky," Paul said "but if you manage to do it you won't have to worry about money for awhile,"

"My point exactly,"

"There is one problem though," Seth said "One that has the potential to screw up the whole damn plan," I coked an eyebrow in question "The Cullen's are still in Forks,"

Immediately, I felt all eyes turn to me, not wanting to miss my reaction, and I did not disappoint.

Upon first hearing the news I froze, taking a few moments to actually process the new information, then I exploded, cursing so violently that all of the wolves turned a deep shade of red, and Ishleen, who was still sitting on my lap, looked at me, mouth agape.

"What in the hell are they still doing here?" I cried, after taking a few moments to calm down "They should have left Forks the moment I told them I was dead!"

"Apparently it's too hard for them to move," Jacob sneered "They were supposedly heartbroken over your death and couldn't bear to leave again,"

"Oh, I'm truly touched," I said sarcastically "If only they'd used that logic _months _ago,"

"This could really mess up the whole plan," Rhys sighed "Think of their reactions when they find out we lied to them,"

"They'll be understandably pissed," Embry agreed.

"So do we continue on anyway?" Aria asked "Or do we find a new plan?"

I shook my head "We've done too much to back down because a coven of backstabbing bastards are too dimwitted to catch the hint that they are no longer wanted in Forks. We're continuing with the plan"

* * *

><p>Three days later, Brenna, Rhys, and I collected our forged documents from Jenks, and paid him the required eight hundred dollars (I still felt a little guilty about that), then we once again set up camp on the First Beach with a few of the wolves watching curiously as we began to carry out our plan.<p>

The plan, despite what everyone believed, was quite simple. I had to fake my death, but before I did so I would re-write my will, leaving everything to Izy Kane, a close childhood friend, and the name that was, consequently, on all of my new i.d. papers.

But because I'm no longer human I'm not very compatible with hospital machinery, which, I have no doubt, is where they'll take me the moment I'm found, as I'm supposed to have been in a car accident, and a pretty bad one at that. So instead of having Brenna create all of these complex illusions that will have everyone believing that I'm one hundred percent human I decided to just create a simple golem of myself. Sculpted from wet sand by the talented hands of Brenna, Aria, and I, the golem was made to look like an exact replica of a severely wounded human me, in sand form. Once we had gotten everything down to the last detail, I breathed life into it, a little trick that I learned from Delphi's memories, and the sand fell away, leaving a grievously wounded, but very alive, Bella standing in the exact same dirty, ripped close I'd worn the night of the crash.

"That is amazing," Sam said, stepping forward to examine the still form lying sprawled out in the sand "Is it really alive?"

I nodded "For exactly four days she will have a heartbeat, she'll breathe, "blood" will flow through her veins, and she'll even be able to speak in very simple sentences,"

"Why does she look like she's dead?" Jacob cautiously poked Golem-Bella with a toe.

"She's unconscious," I said swatting his foot away with my own "And with all of the injuries she has, I'm not surprised. Now pick her up, and _gently _give her to me,"

Jacob did as instructed "Where do you plan on taking her?"

"I was thinking about ditching her on the street leading up to Charlie's house, it would make sense that the first place she'll try to go is home,"

* * *

><p>After ditching Golem-Bella on the side of the road three houses away from Charlie's, Darian, who insisted on coming with me just incase the Cullen's decided to appear, and I hid in the trees beside the house closest to Golem-Bella and waited.<p>

Surprisingly, it only took about five minutes for a jogger to stumble upon her, and, after frantically searching for a pulse, call for nine-one-one as she tried to make her as comfortable as possible until the paramedics arrived.

We watched from our perch in the tree as, fifteen minutes later an ambulance arrived and Golem-Bella was loaded into the back and sped away to the closest hospital.

I grinned at Darian "Phase on, complete,"

* * *

><p>The next three days were spent wandering around La Push, nearly dying from boredom as we waited for the police of Forks <em>as well as <em>the state of Washington to come to the conclusion that a) Golem-Bella was not, at the moment, well enough to answer their questions and b) was not in any danger of being kidnapped or disappearing again, so they gave the hospital permission to allow her to have visitors and left.

The moment the officers were away from the hospital Rhys, Darian, Damon, Aria, Evalyn, Bree, and Ishleen settled down in the hospital cafeteria while Brenna and I went up to Golem-Bella's room with none other than Jason Jenks in tow.

"We're running short on time," I hissed, dragging the chubby man down the hall "why the hell did the police take so long questioning her?"

"It must have taken them awhile to realize that she was of no help in her current condition," Brenna reasoned.

"But she'll be of no help to _anyone _in less than an hour," I huffed "So, please, let's hurry it up a bit,"

"W-why am I here?" Jenks stuttered

"Didn't we tell you earlier when we came to pick you up Jenks," I sighed "We need an attorney to oversee and legalize the changing of one Isabella Marie Swan,"

"Yes, but _why me_?"

"Because, I thought you didn't ask stupid question like other lawyers do," I glared at him "Apparently I was wrong,"

"Room T-49," Brenna said read "We're here,"

I opened the white door and the three of us slipped into the pristine hospital room.

"Bella?" I said gently, walking to the bedside of the golem "We're here with the lawyer, like you asked,"

"Good," Golem-Bella said, though her words were somewhat garbled "Start,"

"Start?" Jenks asked nervously "What does she mean start?"

"Start changing the will," Bree rolled her eyes.

"Oh, oh, ok," Jenks pulled a folder from his briefcase and began reading off everything I owned, that being three houses (the one in Florida, Arizona, and Forks) and all of my three parent's life's savings, as well as their life insurance money, which after being totaled up came up to around two and a half million.

Behind Jenks' back I grinned, my coven and I wouldn't have to hurt for money for quite some time.

"So," the lawyer said "is there anyone in particular you'd like to leave anything to?"

"Everything…to…Izy Kane,"

Jenks turned to me, eyes wide, of course he would recognize the name, he had just forged hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of documents for Izy Kane and her "family".

"Alright," he said writing that down "anyone else?" Golem-Bella shook her head "Okay, then sign here and I'll submit the will,"

Shakily, Golem-Bella picked up the fountain pen Jenks handed to her and scribbled a sloppy signature.

Jenks turned to me "Can I go now?" he pleaded.

"Of course," I smiled graciously "but Jenks," the man stopped, already halfway to the door and locked eyes with me "Don't tell a soul _anything _about us, the papers, the will, _nothing. _Am I understood?"

"Of course not," he said calmly, then scurried out of the room.

"How can we be sure that we can trust him?" Brenna asked worriedly.

"I used my gift on him to make sure he kept his promise," I grinned.

"So he wouldn't be able to tell anyone, even if he wanted to?"

"Exactly, although, I think I put so much power behind the compulsion I don't think he'll ever even _have _the desire to tell anyone,"

"You have got to teach me how you do that one d-" Brenna was cut off by the thunderous sound of the door slamming into the wall, no doubt chipping away a lot of the plaster, and loud angry voices.

"Edward!" Carlisle admonished the bronze haired vampire who was the first to enter the room "Please, control yourself, I understand your anger, but we are in a building full of humans, now is not the time to lose control and do something you'll regret later,"

"Don't you dare lecture me, Carlisle," Edward snarled "I have every right to be angry and do whatever the hell I want to those two bitches who kept me from my mate,"

_Go get the others_, I mouthed to Brenna, then turned to face the Cullen's, a sneer already curling my lips "Your mate," I laughed tauntingly "You lost the right to call Bella that the day you left her in the forest, alone and heartbroken," from my peripheral vision I saw Brenna slip out of the room while everyone's attention was on me.

"_You!_" Edward cried dramatically "You're the one who kept me from my Bella," he shot forward, his face inches from my own "Why die you lie to me? You told me she was _dead!_"

Calmly, I brushed past the seething vampire and sat my self on the foot of Golem-Bella's bed

"What I choose to tell you, is my choice and mine alone. Now why don't you scram Cullen's, you're upsetting my sister," I patted Golem-Bella's foot and suppressed a smirk when the Cullen's visibly tensed.

"Bella," Alice gasped stumbling forward, not at all her normal graceful self "Oh my God, Bella, we're so sorry,"

Slowly, the golem looked up and locked eyes with the pixie like vampire as I pushed a single thought into her head "You traitor," she whispered "You're all…backstabbing…bastards,"

Alice gasped, and cringed away from the hateful glare Golem-Bella was training on her.

Edward moved closer, but stopped when I hissed at him, even he recognized danger when he saw it "Bella? Love, don't you recognize us, me? It's Edward, I'm so sorry I left you, I did it to protect you, but I love you and swear to never leave again if only you can forgive me,"

On the outside I was the picture of indifference, but inside I was boiling with rage and my emotions must have transferred to my creation because she stared at Edward with such untainted hatred and disgust even I felt scared for him, only for a second though.

"_Never_," she hissed.

Edward looked on in shock for several seconds, before turning to me fury in his eyes "What did you do to her?" he all but screamed "You've brainwashed her! What lies have you told her?"

"I told her nothing," I grinned sadistically "She was the one who realized what you truly are, a fake, and a twisted one at that. Pretending to love a human, leading her on, making her believe she was going to have a life with _you_ all because she interested you, because you couldn't get into her mind like everyone else,"

"That's not true! I love her, I love you, Bella. Please forgive me and we can be together for ever, I'll change you, I'll make you into one of us right now,"

"The last thing… I want…is to be saddled with you…for the rest of eternity," Golem-Bella rasped, and moved closer to my side.

That seemed to be the last straw for Edward's already frayed control, with a furious roar he lunged at me, I prepared for the impact, gearing myself up before a vicious fight with one pissed off, insane vampire. But seconds before he hit me, Edward jerked backward, mid-lunge and found himself flying into the far wall.

"If you ever, try to touch my sister again," Damon snarled "I'll kill you,"

The Cullen's stared in shock at the six new vampires before them, Brenna, they already knew, but Evalyn, Bree, Darian, Damon, and Rhys were quite a shock for them.

"Who are you?" Esme gasped, clutching onto Carlisle's arm in fear.

"We'll be your son's executioner if he doesn't learn to control himself," Rhys growled.

"Sissy and I have given him more than his fair share of warnings," Brenna stared contemptuously at Edward as he struggled to his feet "If he tries to touch her, or any of our coven for that matter, again, he'll be looking up at us from hell,"

"Coven members?" Alice gasped and looked to me "We didn't know you were apart of a coven, you told us you had only just been changed the last time we saw you,"

"A lot can happen in a few weeks," I smiled impishly.

"Did you bite them all yourselves?" Rosalie gasped, horrified "How could you, you monster! You had no right to take a human's life so horribly,"

"Neither of them took anyone's life," Rhys scowled protectively "If anything, they saved us,"

"But at what cost?"

"At whatever cost was necessary!"

"Rosalie calm down," Carlisle said soothingly, he however didn't look to his oldest daughter, he instead was too busy studying Rhys "I recognize you," he said "you were on the news a few weeks ago. Rhys right? You were supposed to have been killed by your own stepfather in this very hospital,"

Rhys stiffened, instantly Brenna was by his side, her hand in his "I don't see how that is any of your business," he said stiffly.

"Forgive me," Carlisle apologized "But I am merely confused, you were confirmed dead by the hospital, not even vampire venom can raise the dead. How are you still here?"

"Magic," Rhys turned his back on Carlisle "Are we done here?" he asked "I'd like to leave now,"

"Of course, we were just about to come and get you guys then leave when we were so rudely intercepted by these seven,"

None of the Cullen's even had the grace to look ashamed.

"Good, I'm ready to go on a nice long hunt-"

A shrill beeping filled the air, and for a second all of us looked around, disoriented, before we realized where the sound was coming from.

Golem-Bella was flatlining.

"No!" Edward cried and darted forward, and to everyone's shock bent down, teeth bared, it only took me a second to realize what he was doing, but I was already to late to stop him. Luckily, he was yanked back by Rhys who put him in a chokehold, just as nearly a dozen doctors and nurses flooded the room, carrying different pieces of equipment.

Frantically they worked around the golem, trying desperately to bring her back to life, but they didn't stand a chance, Golem-Bella had been created at this hour exactly four days ago, her time was up, and it only took the doctors to come to this realization as well.

"We've lost her," one doctor said wearily, pulling back his sleeve he looked down at the watch on his wrist "Isabella Swan, time of death: five forty-three p.m."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Woooo! You guys don't even want to know how much fun I had writing that last part down, and the last line? I loved how dramatic it was. As for the fight between Jacob and Bella, I looked up most of the insults, there is no way I am that creative. So, yeah, that was just a little disclaimer for ya'll. Chapter 13 is almost ready, expect it at the usual time. **


	14. Chapter Thirteen: Above All Others

**A/N: OH MY LORD! It's been a year! A year ago today, Blue Moon: The Awakening was published, posted on fanfiction for my eager readers. *sigh* It seems as if it was only yesterday. Happy 1st Birthday B.M.A.! And Merry Christmas to all of my readers 3**

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><p><strong>Disclaimer: Still don't own Twilight.<strong>

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><p><em>In time of peace prepare for war, in time of war prepare for peace.<em>

_-Sun Tzu_

"Time of death five forty p.m.,"

"What?" Alice gasped "She's dead? No-no she can't be dead,"  
>"I'm sorry," one of the nurses said sympathetically "we did everything we could, but there wasn't anything we could do, she's gone,"<br>"Could we-could we have a moment please?" Carlisle requested "Just to say goodbye," he added when they hesitated to leave.  
>The doctors and nurses reluctantly filed out of the hospital room "We'll send someone in in five minutes. To, you know, collect the body and send it to the morgue to prep for the funeral,"<br>"Thank you," Carlisle murmured.

The moment the door closed, Edward wrestled himself out of Rhys' grip and staggered to the dead Golem-Bella's side. Frantically, he slapped at her cheeks, ignoring the fact that, if she'd still been alive, the force of his hits would have left some serious bruises on her face, when she didn't respond he began shaking her "Come on, get up, Bella. Open your goddamn eyes!"

"Edward man," Emmett said, his voice low and somber "she's dead,"

Edward placed his hands on the Golem's chest and started doing compressions "No, we still have time, if I can just get her heart going then the venom will save her,"

"Don't you get it?" Brenna said with disgust "This," she pointed at the dead body "was Bella's choice. She chose to die rather than lose her humanity. You have no right to try and _force _her into becoming one of us,"

"Oh please," Edward scoffed "she never had a choice in the matter. She's my mate,"

A low growl rippled through the room.

"You better watch what you say," Rhys warned dangerously "I won't stand here and let you speak about Bella as if she were yours to order about and treat as you please,"

"She might as well have been, the way she fell over herself to make me happy,"

"Edward!" Esme gasped "What you're saying is despicable,"

"But it's true, and you all know it, you've seen her and how she'd bend over backwards to please me,"

"Enough, you bastard," I barked "Bella is dead and you are dishonoring her memory, we won't listen to it a moment longer. Come on you guys, let's leave them to their _grieving_,"

I turned and headed toward the door my family close behind me, but stopped when Edward raced around us and blocked our way "You're not going anywhere," he hissed "you killed my mate, therefore I have the right to choose replace her with one of you,"

"Oh what kind of bullshit are you spouting out of your ass now?" I snorted.

"It's true! It's true, tell them Carlisle,"

"Actually, Edward…"

"_Tell them, _Carlisle," there was an unpleasant undertone in his voice "_Tell them it's true_,"

"I'm sorry, but it's not," Carlisle sighed at his delusional son "You can't _force _someone to be your mate,"

"Watch me," he surveyed us for several seconds before making his decision "She'll do just fine," I raised my eyebrow when I saw the finger pointing at me "She's most at fault for Bella's death,"

"Oh so you think you can just _tell me_ I'm your mate now, and I have absolutely no choice in the matter,"

"Exactly," he seemed satisfied that I'd cottoned on so quickly.

I shook my head sympathetically "Well, I'm sorry to say that that just doesn't work out too well for me. I'm not attracted to demanding, delusional, self-assured primadonnas," I'm sure that if he could Edward would be as red as a stop light "Come on guys let's get out of here before his stupidity becomes contagious,"

Edward planted his feet firmly into the ground, his message was all too clear, he wasn't going to move for anything. I shrugged, fine by me, with absolutely no effort at all, I lifted him by his hair and threw him into the wall, leaving a sizable Edward-shaped dent in the wall, and then we hightailed it out of there.

* * *

><p>The next few days were spent in a blur of collecting the money "Bella" left to us, selling the houses in Forks, Arizona, and Florida, as well as searching for one of our own, and spending the rest of our times holed up in La Push, hanging out with the pack and generally avoiding the Cullens.<br>Unfortunately, we couldn't remain with the Quileutes for forever, and so, a few days after finding a house large enough to fit an entire vampire army , we had one last bonfire with the pack and then left for our new home in the backwoods of Montana.

* * *

><p>"Wow, Izy," Evalyn whistled appreciatively our new home "This is...impressive,"<br>"It has to be," I said "I plan to be entertaining quite a few guests in the next few months,"  
>"Yeah, but when you told us you bought a house we thought you meant just a house," Bree sai looking around in wonder "Not all of <em>this<em>,"

I laughed, without a hint of sympathy, at my coven's expense, although their bewilderment was completely understandable. When I had told them I'd bought a house, I'd failed to mention just how large it was, or that I'd bought all of the surrounding land. Our new home was an impressive five floor manor that took up almost three acres of land, with another ten acres making up a ridiculously large backyard, complete with it's own little lake and a nicely sized forest bordering the grounds, no doubt abundant in wildlife, or in our case, dinner.

"How much did you say you paid for this plac?" Rhys asked.

If I was still human I'm sure I would have blushed guiltily "Um, I managed to persuade the lady who owned this place to sell it to me for one grand,"

"This place is well worth five hundred times that amount,"

I shrugged "I guess she was in a generous mood,"

"Generous mood my ass," Brenna snorted.

I scowled "The way I see it, I paid just the amount I needed to, if not more, this house will be used to train an army that, in a way, will be preventing the end of the world. Considering the great service we will be doing for her, and all of humankind, the east the landlady could do was agree to sell this house for a greatly reduced price,"

"But she didn't agree," Brenna pointed out logically "You kind of influenced her decision,"

"Oh, when did you suddenly grow a conscience?" I huffed, she grinned at me, and the rest of my coven snickered at my irritation "Will you guys stop acting _so _self righteous and get in the damn house?"

Rhys kissed my cheek "Anything for you, Bell,"

His patronizing tone only made my scowl deepen "Ingrates," I muttered under my breath and marched sullenly to the front door "After all of the hard work I put into getting you all this house, _this _is how you repay me?"

Ishleen darted forward and took my hand as I pushed the front door open and walked into the massive foyer.

"I like it, Belly," she said sweetly.

I scooped her up into my arms and hugged her close to my chest "And that is why you're my favorite," I cooed.

"Suck up," Bree said, flicking Ishleen in the back of the head as she passed.

"Don't bully my baby," I scolded the brunette, the placed Ishleen back onto the floor and taking her hand "Come on, Ishy, let's go make sure you get the biggest and best room in the house,"

"Uh no," Brenna said, darting past us "That room would be for, _moi_,"

The next hour or so was spent arguing over who got what room, deciding which floors the visiting vampires would occupy, and rearranging practically all of the furniture in the house (and if it was bad enough, taking it out back and burning it).

When we were finally done running around the house like ADHD four year old children jacked up on enough sugar and caffeine in their system to give an elephant a heart attack, we settled down in the living room.

"Okay, group," I said with as much authority as I could muster (which wasn't half as much as I'd hoped) "Today is March 21st, which means we have a lot to do, and only a little buit of time to do it in.

"In approximately five months, Devlin will wake up along with an army of d Gang. We need to have properly trained ourselves and have an army of our own by that time. And the only way we can do that is if we work night and day, first preparing ourselves and then going out to find vampires both willing and able to fight, bring them back here, and prepare them as well,"

"What do you mean by prepare?" Aria asked softly.

Even though she had spent the last three weeks of her life constantly in our company, she was still painfully shy. A problem that I planned to have rectified by the end of this month.

"When I say prepare," I explained "I mean train, for us, that means discovering what abilities we have, what we can do with them, and how to use them. It also means that we come together as a group, when we're out there fighting the ad Gang, it's you eight that I want watching my back at all times, and vice versa. We're a coven- no, a _family _now, and I want to know that no matter what, I want to know that I can trust you guys above all others,"

"I second that notion,"Damon said.

"And I third it," Evalyn jumped in,"

For the next few seconds the room rang was full of the rest of the coven agreeing with what I had said.

I grinned "Perfect, now that we've got that settled, let's get started,"

"Now?" Brenna asked "at eleven o'clock at night?"

I shrugged my shoulders "What else are we going to do? It's not like we can sleep, besides I was thinking that we could just work on developing our abilities. that won't involve much physical work,"

She nodded "Okay, that makes sense,"

"How are we going to find out about our abilities?" Evalyn asked.

"Well," Rhys said "Bella, Brenna, and are already aware of what af Lys are capable of doing, and the theory behind actually using our powers,"

"But we don't know about everyone's individual abilities," I added "So let's just go around the room and explain the gifts we had as humans. I'll start,"

Rhys snored "We are all very much aware as to what your gift is _and _that you are perfectly capable of using it,"

"I was _trying _to get the ball rolling," I said, glaring at him "but since you seem unable to appreciate my efforts, why don't you start?"

"Fine," he sniffed loftily "When I was younger, I learned that I was able to make myself go numb and that I could faster than any human being should,"

"I'm able to make people feel, see, hear, and taste things that aren't really there," Brenna said.

Darian sat up in his seat "I can learn anything I want to about a person, just by touching their skin,"

"And I can link my mind with another person's and we can speak to each other through the connection," his twin said.

I smiled "That'll be handy in battle. Who's next? Aria? Evalyn?"

"I have pretty much the same gift Rhys does," Aria said "But I can also make myself invisible,"

"I can move things with my mind," Evalyn thought for a second "Kind of like telekinesis,"

I grinned "Well aren't we an impressive group of individuals? Our unique gifts alone already make us formidable, but with those _and _the usual gifts of an af Lys, we'll be near unstoppable,"

* * *

><p><strong>March 22nd: Day One<strong>  
>"Today," I said, pacing slowly in front of my coven, all of whom stood in a perfectly straight line in the middle of the dense forest that bordered our property "we will begin the extensive training of both our bodies and our minds. I warn you now, at times things will get tough, you may feel as if you cannot, for the life of you, go on, you will want nothing more than to give up, but you <em>must<em>. You must keep going if you want to save not only yourselves but the entire world. So ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our first exercise," I emptied one of the two large bags I held at their feet. It was full of water guns "Team building,"  
>Brenna knelt down and picked up a water gun "A water fight?" she asked.<br>I emptied the second, bottles of neon colored paints rolled across the ground "Paint fight,"grins stretched across everyone's faces "When all of the paint is gone, the team covered with the most paint loses.

"I'm team Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies' team leader, Aria you will be leading the Jumping Amazing Super Optimistic Noodle Squad,"

"_Me_,"  
>"Yes, you. I'll choose my first team member," without hesitation I pointed to our youngest member "Ishleen," she happily skipped to my side.<br>"I choose, Evalyn," Aria said tentatively.  
>In the end, I got Ishleen, Brenna, Darian, and Bree, while Aria got Evalyn, Damon, and Rhys, at first the Jumping Amazing Super Optimistic Noodle Squad protested over our having more people than they did, but after I pointed out that I had the two youngest members of the coven on my team, they quieted down. Each of us grabbed a water gun and filled them with paint, and, after taking a few more bottles for extra ammo, separated.<br>My group ran for a good five minutes, and stopped only when we reached a small clearing, cut in half by a tiny stream that we knew flowed into the lake.  
>"Okay, team, here's the plan," I whispered "Ishleen, at the moment, you are our most valuable player,"<br>"She _is_?" Brenna asked "How do you figure that?"  
>"Look at her," everyone turned to the little blond haired girl, who stared back up at us, silver eyes shining innocently.<br>"Okay, she's adorable," Brenna conceded "but how will that help us?"  
>"Would you really be able to raise a gun to her?" I asked, she shook her head "Exactly, we'll send her out to where Aria's team is and while they're distracted with her, we ambush them,"<br>"Brilliant plan," Darian grinned.  
>"But guys," Bree sighed "we first have to <em>find<em>Aria's team,"

"Belly?" Ishleen called out, her too big gin dragging in the dirt behind her as she scanned the woods nervously "Bree, Dary? Brenna?"  
>"Do you think it's a trap?" Damon whispered.<br>"Most likely," Rhys responded.  
>"I don't know," Evalyn said hesitantly "She really looks like she's lost,"<br>"That's the point," Damon said, the bushes he hid behind quivered and Ishleen turned to face it.  
>"Shit," Rhys muttered.<br>"Belly?" the little girl whispered, eyes wide, she cautiously made her way to the bush they all crouched behind "Is that you?"  
>"I say shoot her the moment we see her,"<br>"Damon!"Aria said "look at her, we _can't_,"  
>"And why the hell not?"<br>"She's a defenseless little girl!"  
>"I'm sorry, but am I the only one who sees the gun full of paint she's carrying,"<br>"She's four," Evalyn argued, she probably doesn't even know how to work the trigger,"  
>"Evalyn!" the little girl cried, coming around the bush to find the four vampires crouched in the dirt "Do you know where Belly is? I-I'm lost,"<br>"Oh, it's alright," Evalyn smiled at the little girl "You'll find her, I'm sure she's around here _somewhere_,"  
>I leapt from the tree "How right you are," my teammates took this as their cue to leap from their hiding places and began drowning the enemy team in paint, Ishleen included.<br>However the Jumping Amazing Super Optimistic Noodle Squad recovered remarkably fast, and retaliated with blood thirsty calls and gallons of paint.  
>"Fire Breathing Rubber Duckies!" I screamed swiping paint from my eyes after nearly half an hour of repainting the entire forest "Fall back to the lake!"<br>Screaming bloody murder, my teammates and I ran as fast as our paint covered bodies would allow us, with the opposing team hot on our heels. And there on the banks of the river, we made our last stand, shooting paint from our ever waning supply of ammo and dodging the spray of neon liquid from the enemy, and when we ran out of paint we did the only logical thing. We dove into the lake.  
>"That's cheating!" Evalyn yelled "Now we can't tell how much paint you really had on you,"<br>"What are you gonna do about it?" I taunted, doing a lazy backstroke through the now, oddly colored water.  
>And of course she and the rest of the Jumping Amazing Super Optimistic Noodle Squad joined us in the water, thus starting a spontaneous, but completely epic, water fight.<br>An hour later, we dragged ourselves out of the water, our clothes having lost the majority of their color, and carrying nearly fifty pounds of water in our clothing each.  
>"So," Brenna said, laying her head down on Rhy's stomach "Who won,"<br>"I do believe the Fire Breathing Duckies won," I said.  
>"Oh please," Damon scoffed "You guys cheated when you washed away all of your paint, the Jumping Amazing Super Optimistic Noodle Squad won, fair and square,"<br>"Fair and square has no place in this dysfunctional family," I pointed out climbing to my feet "we do whatever we have to to win. Now get up and get changed, we're not even close to done with training for the day,"

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><p><strong>AN: I know, it's short, and after three weeks you were waiting for something interesting to happen in the story, but unfortunately, this chapter was much needed before we could get to all of the good stuff, a filler chapter if you will. But I promise cross my hearrt, things will begin picking up within the next two chapters.**


	15. Chapter Fourteen: Time Gone By

_How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?__  
><em>_~ Dr. Seuss_

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><p><strong>April 5<strong>**th****: Day 15**

"This is impossible," I moaned in frustration, yanking at the ends of my hair "absolutely impossible,"

"Well, maybe if you guys weren't so finicky this wouldn't be so difficult," Aria griped.

"But we have to be finicky," Damon protested "If we're not we could choose wrong, and if we choose wrong the whole day could end in disaster. The happiness of us all is dependent on this one choice,"

"Oh please," Bree scoffed "It's not _that _serious,"

"Really?" Darian arched an eyebrow "Then why don't you let us chose?"

"No," I said firmly ""We'll take a vote. Okay?" everyone nodded "Good, now, everyone for watching a daddy fish search the ocean for his last son, raise your hands," four hands shot up "Okay, put your hands down. Anyone who wants to watch as zombies gorge on human flesh, hands in the air," I took a second to count "It's a tie,"

"You didn't vote, Bell," Bree pointed out.

"I don't vote, I'm impartial,"

"But we need a tie breaker,"

"Here's a tie breaker for you guys," Evalyn said "Zombies win,"

"No," Damon scowled "Lost fishies win,"

"I agree," Darian cried enthusiastically.

"I wanna watch zombies eat people," Ishleen pouted.

"Oh well, we're watching fish!" Damon just about shouted.

"No, zombies," Evalyn shot back.

"Fish!"

"Zombies!"

"Fish!"

"Zombies!"

"Fish!"

"Zombies!"

"Fish, fish, fish, fish, _fish_!"

"Okay, children," I cut in before things got violent "Let's try and act our age and _not_ our shoe sizes, you're setting a bad example for Ishleen,"

"Plus, people are starting to stare," Brenna added.

"People always stare at us,"

"That's not the point," I cried "We need to find a mature, _reasonable_ way to solve this,"

There was a beat of silence "Rock, paper, scissors, then?"

"You read my mind," I grinned "Darian you represent fish, Ishy, zombies,"

We created a loose circle around the two and watched intently as they glared intimidatingly at each other.

"On go," I said "On my mark, get set, _go_,"

"Rock, paper, scissors," the two said in unison, pounding their fists into their open palms.

"What the hell is that, Ishleen?" Darian cried.

"It's a gun," the little girl giggled "Bang, bang,"

* * *

><p><strong>April 8<strong>**th****: Day 18**

The day after our impromptu trip to the movie theater, we dove right back into training, three days later, we were still going, and it didn't look as we'd be having a break anytime soon. Being a vampire had its perks.

So that's why, as the sun rose on the morning of April 8th, Brenna, Rhys, Ishleen, Bree, Darian, Damon, Aria, Evalyn, and I were gathered on the lawn in front of the house, which we had christened the Crypt several days previous, sitting in lotus positions with our eyes tightly shut.

"I feel silly," Darian moaned, shattering the peaceful silence.

"I don't think this is working," Damon added.

"How long have we been sitting here?" Brenna asked.

"I'd say about an hour," Bree guessed.

"No, it has to have been two," Evalyn said.

"It feels more like _five_," Rhys complained.

"No, six," Aria disagreed.

My eyes snapped open and I glared at my coven members "Two minutes," I snarled "we have been sitting here for two fucking minutes,'

"Well, two minutes is enough for me to come to the decision that I do not like this one bit," Rhys leapt to his feet "Let's do something fun,"

"I like fun," Ishleen agreed.

"Please, Bell?" Brenna pleaded "Fun is good,"

I scowled, something I'd been doing quite a bit lately, if I didn't ease up, my face would be stuck in a permanent frown "Fine," I huffed climbing to my feet "You don't want to learn how to focus? How to control your powers? Okay, let's just jump straight into the practical work with absolutely no idea on what we're doing,"

"Awesome," everyone clambered to their feet and looked at me with anticipation shining in their eyes.

"So, what are we going to do, Bell?" Aria asked eagerly and despite my annoyance, I couldn't help but smile at her. Over the course of these past eighteen days I and the rest of the coven, had managed to beat the shyness out of Aria and get her to open up to us. Looking at her now, it was near impossible to associate her with the painfully shy girl who couldn't even look us in the eye. But then again, we had all changed.

With a little effort, I shook myself from my thought to answer her question, I would have time to be nostalgic _after _we finished training, or, better yet, after we'd killed off every last ad Gang in existence.

"We're going to be working on changing the makeup of the objects around us,"

"How?"

"By changing the color of the object, and to do that, you have to close your eyes and concentrate," as I expected, they groaned in exasperation "Oh shut up and just do it," I snapped, and to my pleasant surprise, they did "Good, now think of something in the immediate area, not too big, and _not_ a person," Damon made a sound of disappointment "Once you have your object pictured clearly in your mind, imagine it changing into the color of your choice," we stood in silence for several minutes, concentrating intensely on the task "Now open your eyes,"

There were sighs of disappointment throughout the group, when we opened our eyes and found that nothing had changed.

"It didn't work," Brenna pouted.

"It will take a little bit of practice," I comforted her "It was unlikely that we would get it on the first try,"

"_I _did it, Belly," Ishleen said proudly.

I raised an eyebrow "You did?"

She nodded cheerfully, then pointed behind me "Look,"

Everyone spun around.

"Oh, my," Evalyn gaped.

The statement was a bit of an under-reaction considering what Ishleen had done, the four year old girl had managed to turn the entire Crypt a bright, garish shade of pink, and odds were she had no idea how to turn it back.

* * *

><p><strong>April 12<strong>**th****: Day 22**

"_I just want you close, where you can stay forever_

_You can be sure, that it will only get better  
>You and me together, through the days and nights<br>I don't worry 'cause everything's going to be alright  
>People keep talking they can say what they like<br>But all I know is everything's going to be alright," _

My voice echoed through the cavernous bathroom as I stepped out of my clothing, and into the already running shower. The water spraying from the nozzle was set as hot as it could go , and even though it didn't sear my skin as it would have if I was human, I could feel the heat emanating from every droplet of water.

"_No one, no one, no one,_

_Can get in the way of what I'm feeling  
>No one, no one, no one<br>Can get in the way of what I feel for you, you, you  
>Can get in the way of what I feel for you<em>,"_  
><em>

I retrieved the bottle of vanilla scented shampoo (I didn't use that strawberry crap any more) from its perch on the shower shelf and, after squirting a liberal amount into the palm of my hand, lathered it into my hair.

"_When the rain is pouring down, and my heart is hurting  
>You will always be around, this I know for certain<br>You and me together, through the days and nights  
>I don't worry 'cause everything's going to be alright<br>People keep talking they can say what they like  
>But all I know is everything's going to be alright<em>,"

When all of the sudsy soap bubbles had washed off of my body and down the drain, I turned off the water and stepped out of the shower.

"_No one, no one, no one  
>Can get in the way of what I'm feeling<br>No one, no one, no one  
>Can get in the way of what I feel for you, you, you<br>Can get in the way of what I feel  
>I know some people search the world, to find something like what we have.<br>I know people will try, try to divide, something so real,_

_So till the end of time I'm telling you there ain't no one  
>No one, no one<br>Can get in the way of what I'm feeling  
>No one, no one, no one<br>Can get in the way of what I feel for you_,"

As I reached the end of my song, I, wrapped in a large fluffy towel, walked over to the mirror, with a comb in my hand and the intention of smoothing any knots from my hair before it dried. But when I looked into the large bathroom mirror the comb fell from my hand with a clatter. My skin, from the neck up was dyed a dark blue, I didn't know how, and I didn't know why, but I did know _who_, and that who was going to get one hell of an ass whooping.

"DARIAN!"

* * *

><p><strong>April 15<strong>**th****: Day 25**

The atmosphere in the kitchen crackled with intensity as Darian and I glared menacingly at each other from across the kitchen table. Settled around us were the rest of our coven members, all of whom were watching the showdown with varying degrees of interest.

"You're going to die today," I hissed ferally "You're going to die a slow and painful death, and _I'm _going to be the one who kills you,"

"Bring it on, Smurf,"

I curled my teeth back and growled at him, it had been three days since he had pranked me by turning my skin blue (how he managed to do so without me noticing was still a mystery to all but him) and even after washing myself more than a dozen times, my skin and hair was still tinged a light blue, a vast improvement from the dark blue it had been to begin with, but I was still wholly unpleased with the fact that I did in fact look like a dark haired Smurf.

However, I didn't spend those three days sulking, I spent all of my time in between training sessions plotting revenge, the possibilities were endless, I could shave his head, steal all of his clothes, glue his mouth shut, or some other childish prank, but I didn't want my revenge to humiliate him, I wanted it to show him that I was not someone to mess with, especially when it came down to my hair, something I was fiercely protective of.

It had taken me nearly the full three days to think of suitable revenge, but in the end, the wait was worth it, I would teach Darian a lesson he would never forget, and I was going to have a hell of a lot of fun doing it.

In order to get my revenge, however, I had to change that days training schedule from a review of all we'd learned to… a more _hands on _activity, a free for all fight, something my coven members were incredibly excited about. All but Darian, that is, because he was the only one who saw it for what it truly was, a means of getting revenge, which led us to our current position of attempting to reduce the other to a gibbering mess with nothing but our stares and 'cutting' insults.

"Okay, that's enough," Brenna finally snapped, after fifteen minutes of watching us glare at each other "I'm sorry to say that you won't suddenly develop the skill to shoot lasers out of eyes to cut each other down if you guys just sit here long enough, so if you want to kill each other, you're going to have to do it during the fight,"

Finally, we wrenched our eyes away from each other to stare at Brenna, she met our stares challengingly.

"Fine," I muttered, then turned back to Darian for a fraction of a second "Prepare to die, Deton,"

"I eagerly await the day you beat me in a fight, Swan,"

Silently, the nine of us marched out onto the front lawn "Here are the rules," Rhys said when we finally stopped walking "When I say go we're all going to run in opposite directions for three minutes, _no following each other_," at this statement he sent a pointed look at Darian and me "Only when the three minutes are up are you allowed to turn back and begin tracking your opponents, a person is out when they are thrown into the boiling pit of shame a.k.a. the lake. In order to keep anyone from cheating by climbing out of the lake and attempting to rejoin the game, I will sit this activity out in lieu of guarding the lake and all of its inhabitants. The lat one standing is the winner, and receives a months worth of bragging rights. Are we clear on the rules?"

"Yes,"

"Alright then," Rhys walked along the group and placed us all in a perfect circle "On my mark," he said from the middle of the circle "get ready, get set, _go!_"

At his word, I shot off into a run and, within seconds, was deep in the woods and going deeper still, but when the three minutes were up (I was alerted to it when the timer on my wrist beeped) I turned around and retraced my steps back to where we began, and it seemed like Darian had the same idea, because he burst from the trees opposite of me at the exact same time I did.

"Well, well, well," he grinned "if it isn't little Isabelly, come to fight with the big boys,"

I looked around myself "I don't see any big boys at the moment, but when I do, I'll be sure to let you know,"

"Oh ho, so cute, she's got jokes,"

"Cute's not the only thing I can be,"

"Well, why don't you prove it?"

My hands balled into loose fists "Bring it on,"


	16. Live and Let Die

_When you were youngand your heart was an open book_  
><em>You used to say live and let live<em>  
><em>But if this ever changing world in which we live in<em>  
><em>Makes you give in and cry<em>  
><em>Say live and let die<em>

_-Paul McCartney_

* * *

><p>To all of my lovely readers, I am ashamed to say that I no longer have the drive nor the passion or inspiration to write Blue Moon, whenever I pull up Word to start typing up my next chapter I hit a blank. And that frustrates me to no end because I <em>know <em>where I want the story to go, who I want to be paired with who and everything, but my Muse absolutely refuses to cooperate, it's compelled me to write so many more stories (many of which you will begin seeing very soon) but nothing for Blue Moon. So, to my great sorrow, I am putting Blue Moon on a potentially permanent hiatus, there may come a day when I decided to pick this story back up again, but in all honesty, it seems very unlikely. So, my loves, I am allowing anyone who wishes to, to adopt Blue Moon, if you P.M. a request to pick this sorely neglected story up I will give tell you everything I had planned and you can do with that information as you please.

All my love

AnarchicMuse


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